


\^^ M 




v^^^^^o^ a.^" ^-x ^y^^^.^ ,0 O \'^^^0^ 












#. 






^■'z 






x*' A, 






K^' 



■W ^, 



A 





.-}.■* „^ '^^^'' 


*/'i 




^. 'oo' 










v-^ sA 



>. v^ 



'C-* 


s^'-' 






sV 


•/> 


- 


t 




v>. 


-^ 






'^>-, 


' 


V 






,AV^ 



'^.^. 



^^ .^^'' 









\ > •^ ^ . ^ /y 






^ i/ 1 A ^' X^^ 



> ^ 






^^^^lu^^ 



Daring Deeds 



IN 



•The Tropics, 




A THRiti^iNG Narrative of Rk- 
MARKABLK Adventures, Terrible 
Experiences, Amazing Achieve- 
ments .and Important Discoveries 
OF Great T-ravt^tt^pc^ 

IN 

Southern Climes, 

RICHLY ILLUSTRATED. 

Giving Graphic Accounts of Great 
Mysteries for Thousands of Years 
^^^^^ Unsolved, Terrible Experiences 




^/y\^ OF Starvation and Death, Tortur 

^v^ ous Overland Journeys through 

Grand Primeval Forests, • • . . 

Describing the Wonderful People ^,^'" ^^y figj^ 

and Customs of Strange Countries 

Unknown TO Civilization. .... (""•"MARIO 1894 

James A. Bradbury, F. RTSy^^ y ^ 

JOHN E. POTTER & CO. -...^, 



Philadei^phia. MDCCCIXJV. 



r 



Copyright, 1894, 

BY 

John K. Potter & Co. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I 

INTEODUCTORY. 

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF AFRICA— ITS ANCIENT CIVILIZATION— LITTl E liv-' 
FORMATION EXTANT IN RELATION TO LARGE PORTIONS OF THE CON- 
TINENT—THE GREAT FIELD OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION AND 
MISSIONARY LABOR— ACCOUNT OF A NUMBER OF EXPLORING EXPE- 
DITIONS, INCLUDING THOSE OF MUNGO PARK, DENHAM AND CLAPPER- 
TON, AND OTHERS— THEIR PRACTICAL RESULTS— DESIRE OF FURTHER 
INFORMATION INCREASED— RECENT EXPLORATIONS, NOTABLY THOSE 
OF DR. LIVINGSTONE AND MR. STANLEY, REPRESENTING THE NEW 
YORK "HERALD" NEWSPAPER 1-^ 

CHAPTER n. 

GEOLOGY OF AFRICA— ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 
THE GENERAL GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF THE CONTINENT— THE WANT , 
OF COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION— SINGULAR FACTS AS TO THE 
DESERT OF SAHARA— THE QUESTION OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN— IS 
AFRICA THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE HUMAN RACE? — OPINIONS OF 
SCIENTISTS TENDING TO ANSWER IN THE AFFIRMATIVE-DARWINISM. 8S 



CHAPTER III. 

THE RESULTS OF THE EXPLORATIONS IN AFRICA. 
THE RESULT IN BEHALF OF SCIENCE, RELIGION AND HUMANITY OF THE 
EXPLORATIONS AND MISSIONARY LABORS OF DR. LIVINGSTONE AND 
OTHERS IN AFRICA— REVIEW OF RECENT DISCOVERIES IN RESPECT 
TO THE PEOPLE AND THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE AFRICAN CON- 
TINENT—THE DIAMOND FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA— BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 
OF THE CONTINENT— ITS CAPABILITIES AND ITS WANTS— CHRISTIANI- 
TY AND MODERN JOURNALISM DISSIPATING OLD BARBARISMS, AND 

LEADING THE WAY TO TRIUMPHS OF CIVILIZATION 47 

vii 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER TV. 

LIVINGSTONE'S SECOND (AND LAST) EXPEDITION TO AFRICA. 
AGAIN LEAVES ENGLAND, MARCH, 185S-RESIGNING HIS POSITION AS MIS- 
SIONARY FOR THE LONDON SOCIETY, HE IS APPOINTED BY THE BRITISH 
GOVERNMENT CONSUL AT KILIMANE— AFTER A BRIEF EXPLORATION 
ALONG THE ZAMBESI, HE AGAIN VISITS ENGLAND— SAILS ON HIS FINAL 
EXPEDITION, AUGUST 14, 1865, AND PROCEEDS BY WAY OF BOMBAY TO 
ZANZIBAR— REPORT OF HIS MURDER ON THE SHORES OF NYASSA . . 70 

CHAPTER V. 

THE "HERALD" EXPEDITION OF SEARCH. 
THE GREAT DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN JOURNALISM— THE TELEGRAPH 
—JAMES GORDON BENNETT, HORACE GREELEY, HENRY J. RAYMOND 
—THE MAGNITUDE OF AMERICAN JOURNALISTIC ENTERPRISE— THE 
"HERALD" SPECIAL SEARCH EXPEDITION FOR DR. LIVINGSTONE^ 
STANLEY A CORRESPONDENT— THE EXPEDITION ON ITS WAY TO- 
WARD LIVINGSTONE 83 

CHAPTER YI. 

HENRY MORLAND STANLEY. 
HIS NATIVITY— EARLY LIFE— COMES TO AMERICA— HIS ADOPTION BY A 
NEW ORLEANS MERCHANT— HIS CAREER DURING THE CIVIL WAR- 
BECOMES A CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW YORK "HERALD"— SAILS 
FOR THE ISLAND OF CRETE TO ENLIST IN THE CAUSE OF THE CRE- 
TANS, THEN AT WAR— BUT CHANGES HIS MIND ON ARRIVING THERE 
' —INSTEAD UNDERTAKES A JOURNEY THROUGH ASIA MINOR, THE 
PROVINCES OF RUSSIAN ASIA, ETC.— ATTACKED AND PLUNDERED BY 
TURKISH BRIGANDS— RELIEVED BY HON. E. JOY MORRIS, THE AMERI- 
CAN MINISTER— GOES TO EGYPT— TO ABYSSINIA— REMA RKABLE SUC- 
CESS THERE-HIS SUDDEN CALL TO PARIS FROM MADRID BY MR. 
BENNETT, OF THE " HERALD"— ACCOUNT OF THE INTERVIEW— MR. 
STANLEY GOES TO FIND LIVINGSTONE IN COMMAND OF THE "HERALD" 
LIVINGSTONE EXPEDITION 95 

CHAPTER Vn. 

MR. STANLEY IN AFRICA. 

THE SEARCH FOR DR. LIVINGSTONE ENERGETICALLY BEGUN— PROGRESb 
DELAYED BY WARS— THE SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY FROM UNYANYEMBE 
TO UJIJI IN 1871— THE "HERALD" CABLE TELEGRAM ANNOUNCING 
THE SAFETY OF LIVINGSTONE— THE BATTLES AND INCIDENTS OF 
THIS NEWSPAPER CAMPAIGN— RECEIPT OF THE GREAT NEWS— THE 
• HONOR BESTOWED ON AMERICAN JOURNALISM 107 



CONTENTS. " 

CHAPTER Yin. 

THE MEETING OF LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 

THE "LAND OF THE MOON"— DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY AND THE 
PEOPLE— HORRID SAVAGE RITES— JOURNEY FROM UNYANYEMBE TO 
UJIJI— A WONDERFUL COUNTRY— A MIGHTY RIVER SPANNED BY A 
BRIDGE OF GRASS— OUTWITTING THE SPOILERS— STANLEY'S ENTRY 
INTO UJIJI, AND MEETING WITH LIVINGSTONE— THE GREAT TRIUMPH 
OF AN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 183 



CHAPTER IX. 

LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY IN AFRICA. 

THE GREAT EXPLORER AS A COMPANION— HIS MISSIONARY LABORS- 
THE STORY OF HIS LATEST EXPLORATIONS— THE PROBABLE SOURCES 
OF THE NILE— GREAT LAKES AND RIVERS— THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 
OF CENTRAL AFRICA— A RACE OF AFRICAN AMAZONS— THE SLAVE 
TRADE— A HORRID MASSACRE— THE DISCOVERER PLUNDERED .... 158 



CHAPTER X. 

LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY IN AFRICA. 

[CONTINUED.] 

AN EXPLORATION OF TANGANYIKA LAKE— RESULT— CHRISTMAS AT 
UJIJI— LIVINGSTONE PROCEEDS WITH STANLEY TO UNYANYEMBE- 
ACCOUNT OF THE JOURNEY— ALLEGED NEGLECT OF LIVINGSTONE BY 
THE BRITISH CONSULATE AT ZANZIBAR— DEPARTURE OF THE EX- 
PLORER FOR THE INTERIOR, AND OF MR. STANLEY FOR EUROPE. . 191 



CHAPTER XI. 

INTELLIGENCE OF THE SUCCESS OF THE " HERALD" ENTERPRISE. 

MR. STANLEY'S DESPATCHES TO THE " HERALD "—THEY CREATE A PRO- 
FOUND SENSATION— THE QUESTION OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF HIS 
REPORTS— CONCLUSIVE PROOF THEREOF— TESTIMONY OF THE ENGLISH 
PRESS, JOHN LIVINGSTONE, EARL GRANVILLE, AND THE QUEEN OF 
ENGLAND HERSELF— MR. STANLEY'S RECEPTION IN EUROPE— AT PARIS 
-IN LONDON-THE BRIGHTON BANQUET— HONORS FROM THE QUEEN . 199 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Xn. 

DR. LIVINGSTONE STILL IN AFRICA. 
THE GREAT EXPLORER STILL IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCES OF THE NTLB 
—His LETTERS TO THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT ON HIS EXPLORA- 
TIONS—CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD STANLEY, LORD CLARENDON, 
EARL GRANVILLE, DR. KIRK AND JAMES GORDON BENNETT, JR.— HIS 
OWN DESCRIPTION OF CENTRAL AFRICA AND THE SUPPOSED SOURCES 
OF THE NILE— THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE— A NATION OF CANNIBALS 
^ -BEAUTIFUL WOMEN— GORILLAS— THE EXPLORER'S PLANS FOR THE 
FUTURE Sll 

CHAPTER Xm. 

THE SLAVE TRADE OF EAST AFRICA. 
DR. LIVINGSTONE'S LETTER UPON THE SUBJECT TO MR. BENNETT— COM- 
PARES THE SLAVE TRADE WITH PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS— NATIVES 
OF INTERIOR AFRICA AVERAGE SPECIMENS OF HUMANITY— SLAVE 
TRADE CRUELTIES— DEATHS FROM BROKEN HEARTS— THE NEED OP 
CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION^BRITISH CULPABILITY . 838 

CHAPTER XIY. 

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM OF AFRICA. 
S0M5 ACCOUNTS OF THE BEASTS, BIRDS, REPTILES AND INSECTS OP 
AFRICA— LIVINGSTONE'S OPINION OF THE LION— ELEPHANTS, HIPPO- 
POTAMI, RHINOCEROSES, Etc.— WILD ANIMALS SUBJECT TO DISEASE— 
REMARICABLE HUNTING EXPLORATIONS— GUMMING SLAYS MORE THAN 
ONE HUNDRED ELEPHANTS— DU CHAILLU AND THE GORILLA— THRIL- 
LING INCIDENTS— VAST PLAINS COVERED WITH GAME— FORESTS FILLED 
WITH BIRDS— IMMENSE SERPENTS— THE PYTHON OF SOUTH AFRICA- 
ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS 848 

CHAPTER XY. 

THE LAST JOURNEY AND THE DEATH OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. 

DR LIVINGSTONE ANXIOUSLY AWAITS THE RECRUITS AND SUPPLIES SENT 
BY MR. STANLEY— ON THEIR ARRIVAL SETS OUT SOUTH WESTWARD 
ON HIS LAST JOURNEY-REACHES KISSRI, WHERE CHRONIC DYSEN- 
TERY SEIZES HIM-HE REFUSES TO YIELD; BUT PUSHES ON, TILL 
INCREASING DEBILITY COMPELS HIM TO STOP AND RETRACE HIS 
STEPS-HE SINKS RAPIDLY, AND ON MAY 4th BREATHES HIS LAST- 
HIS ATTENDANTS TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS TO INSURE THE 
RETURN OF THE CORPSE TO ENGLAND-LETTER FROM MR. HOLMWOOD, 
ATT.^CHE OF THE BRITISH CONSULATE AT ZANZIBAR , . „ . 881 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE, XVI. 

THE COEPSE BORNE TO ENGLAND,. AND LAID IN WESTMINSTER 

ABBEY. 

THE BODY OF DR. LIVINGSTONE BORNE TO UNYANYEMBE BY HIS ATTEND- 
ANTS, AND THENCE TO ZANZIBAR— THE BRITISH CONSUL-GENERAL 
SENDS IT, WITH THE DOCTOR'S PAPERS, BOOKS, Etc., TO ENGLAND- 
ARRIVAL AT SOUTHAMPTON AND AT LONDON— THE PEOPLE VIE IN 
TRIBUTES OF RESPECT— THE FUNERAL— THE GRAVE IN WESTMINSTER 
ABBEY 389 



CHAPTER XYII. 

FURTHER DETAILS OF THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE. 

THE LAST NIGHT— EXPIRES IN THE ACT OF PRAYING— COUNCIL OF THE * 
MEN— NOBLE CONDUCT OF CHITAMBO— THE PREPARATION OF THE 
CORPSE— HONOR SHOWN TO DR. LIVINGSTONE— INTERMENT OF THE 
HEART AT CHITAMBO'S— HOMEWARD MARCH FROM ILALA— ILLNESS 
OF ALL THE MEN— DEATHS— THE LUAPULU— REACH TANGANYIKA- 
LEAVE THE LAKE— CROSS THE LAMBALAMFIPA RANGE— IMMENSE 
HERDS OF GAME— NEWS OF EAST COAST SEARCH EXPEDITION— CON- 
FIRMATION OF NEWS— AVANT-COURIERS SENT FORWARD TO UNYANY- 
I5MBE— CHUMA MEETS LIEUT. CAMERON— SAD DEATH OF DR. DILLON 
—THE BODY EFFECTUALLY CONCEALED— ARRIVAL ON THE COAST . . 398 



CHAPTEK XVTH. 

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN EXPEDITION. 

HENRY M. STANLEY'S NEW MISSION— THE UNFINISHED TASK OF LIVING- 
STONE—THE COMMISSION OF MR. STANLEY BY THE "DAILY TELE- 
GRAPH," OP LONDON, AND THE NEW YORK "HERALD." TO COMMAND 
THE NEW EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL AFRICA— MR. STANLEY'S ARRIVAL 
AT ZANZIBAR— FITTING OUT HIS EXPEDITION AND ENLISTING MANY 
OF HIS OLD CAPTAINS AND CHIEFS— SETS SAIL FOR THE WEST COAST 
OF THE ZANZIBAR SEA AND TOWARDS THE DARK CONTINENT— AR- 
RIVAL AT BAGAMOYO— COMPLETES HIS FORCES AND TAKES UP HIS 
LINE OF MARCH INL^VND— INCIDENTS ATTENDING HIS MARCH TO 
MPWAPWA 351 



»" CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XDL 

STANLEY'S ROUTE TO VICTORIA NYANZA. 
SPENDS CHRISTMAS AT ZINGEH— THE RAINY SEASON SETS IN— FAMINE 
OR SCARCITY OF FOOD— HALF RATIONS— EXTORTIONATE CHIEFS LEVY 
BLACKMAII^ARRIVAL AT JIWENI— THROUGH JUNGLE TO KITALALO— 
THE PLAIN OF SALINA— "NOT A DROP OF WATER "—BELLICOSE NA- 
TIVES—TROUBLE WITH MANY OF HIS FOLLOWERS— VALUABLE SER- 
VICES RENDERED HIM BY FRANK AND EDWARD POCOCK AND FRED- 
ERICK BARKER— FREQUENT QUARRELS— THE TRIALS OF STANLEY- 
CAMP AT MTIWI— TERRIBLE RAIN STORM AND SAD PLIGHT OF STAN- 
LEY AND HIS PEOPLE— MISLED BY HIS GUIDE, IS LOST IN A WILD OF 
LOW SCRUB AND BRUSH— TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES— STARVATION IM- 
PENDING—SENDS FOR RELIEF TO SUNA IN URIMI— THE WELCOME 
MEAL OF OATMEAI^A SINGULAR COOKING UTENSII^DEATH OF ED- 
WARD POCOCK— THE WEARY MARCH FROM THE WARIMI TO MGONGO 
TEMBE— THE BEAUTIFUL USIHA— REACHES VICTORIA NYANZA FEBRU^ 
ARY 27th, 1875— ENTERS KAGEHYI— RECEIVES ITS HOSPITALITIES-THE 
END OF A JOURNEY OF 720 MILES IN 103 DAYS 360 

CHAPTER XX. 

EXPLORATION OF VICTORIA NYANZA. 

PREPARING THE LADY ALICE FOR SEA— SELECTS HIS CREW— THE STARl 
FOR THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF LAKE VICTORIA— AFLOAT ON THE 
LAKE— A NIGHT AT UVUMA— BARMECIDE FARE— MESSAGE FROM 
MTESA— CAMP ON SOWEH ISLAND— AN EXTRAORDINARY MONARCH— 
MTESA, EMPEROR OF UGANDA— ARRIVAL AT THE IMPERIAL CAPITAL- 
GLOWING DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY— A GRAND MISSION FIELD— 
THE TREACHERY OF BUMBIREH— SAVED— REFUGE ISLAND— RETURN 
TO CAMP AT KAGEHYI 372 

CHAPTER XXI. 

RETURNS TO UGANDA. j 

LEAVES KAGEHYI WITH HALF HIS EXPEDITION— ARRIVAL AT REFUGE 
ISLAND-BRINGS UP THE REST— ENCAMPED ON REFUGE ISLAND-IN- 
TERVIEWED BY IROBA CANOES— STANLEY'S FRIENDSHIP SCORNED^ 
THE KING OF BUMBIREH HELD AS A HOSTAGE— THE MASSACRE OF 
KYTAWA CHIEF AND HIS CREW— THE PUNISHMENT OF THE MURDER- 
ERS—ITS SALUTARY EFFECT UPON THEIR NEIGHBORS— ARRIVAL IN 
UGANDA— LIFE AND MANNERS IN UGANDA— THE EMPEROR— THE LAND 
—EN ROUTE FOR MUTA NZIGE-THE WHITE PEOPLE OF GAMBARA- 
GARA— LAKE WINDERMERE— RUM ANIK A, THE KING OF KARAGWE— 
HIS COUNTRY— THE INGEZI— THE HOT SPRINGS OF MTAGATA— UBAGWE 
—MSENt— ACROSS THE MALAGARAZI TO UJIJI— SAD REFLECTIONS . . . 389 



CONTENTS. xin 

CHAPTER XXn. 

WESTWARD ALONG THE CONGO TO THE ATLANTIC. 

ffCTRVEYS LAKJ. TANGANYIKA— SETTLES THE QUESTION OF THE RIVER 
LUGUKA— AN OUTBREAK OF SMALL- POX AND FEVER IN UJIJI— CAUSES 
STANLEY TO DEPART— PUSHES HIS WAY ALONG THE RIGHT BANK OF 
THE LUALALA TO THE NYANGWE— OVERLAND THROUGH UREGGA— 
BROUGHT TO A STANDSTILL BY AN IMPENETRABLE FOREST— CROSSES 
OVER TO THE LEFT BANK— NORTHEAST USKUSA— DENSE JUNGLES- 
OPPOSED AND HARASSED BY HOSTILE SAVAGES— ASSAILED NIGHT 
AND DAY— THE PROGRESS OF THE EXPEDITION ALMOST HOPELESS- 
DESERTED BY FORTY OF HIS PORTERS— TAKES TO THE RIVER AS THE 
ONLY CHANCE TO ESCAPE— PASS THE CATARACTS BY CUTTING A ROAD 
THROUGH THIRTEEN MILES OF DENSE FOREST FOR THE PASSAGE OF 
THE LADY ALICE AND THE CANOES— ALMOST INCESSANTLY FIGHTING 
THE SAVAGES— THREATENED WITH STARVATION— THREE DAYS WITH- 
OUT FOOD— MEET WITH A FRIENDLY TRIBE WITH WHOM THEY BARTER 
FOR SUPPLIES— MANY FALLS AND FURIOUS RAPIDS— AGAIN ATTACKED 
BY A MORE WARLIKE TRIBE, ARMED WITH FIREARMS— ALMOST 
STARVED AND WORN-OUT WITH FATIGUE, REACHES ISANGILA— LEAVES 
THE RIVER— TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF HIS PEOPLE— RELIEF FROM 
EMBOMMA-REACH EMBOMMA— KABINDA AND LONDA— SAIL FOR CAPE 
OF GOOD HOPE— THENCE RETURN BY STEAMER TO ZANZIBAR— CLOSE 
OF THE EXPEDITION 404 



CHAPTER XXni. 

THE WONDERFUL RESOURCES OF THE CONGO. 

THE MESSENGERS OP KING LEOPOLD II., OF BELGIUM— MEET STANLEY 
AT MARSEILLES, FRANCE— OBJECT OF THE INTERVIEW— ANOTHER 
EXPEDITION TO AFRICA, TO EXPLORE THE CONGO, IN THE INTERESTS 
OF COMMERCE— THE COMITE D'ETQDES DU HAUT CONGO— OBJECT OF 
THE EXPEDITION DEFINED— STANLEY RETURNS TO AFRICA— ARRIVAL 
AT THE MOUTH OF THE CONGO— COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF THE 
CONGO BASIN— RAILWAYS NECESSARY— THE POPULATION— STATISTICS 
OF TRADE— PRODUCTS OF THE IMMENSE FORESTS— MARVELLOUS 
BEAUTY OF THE COUNTRY— VEGETABLE PRODUCTS— PALMS— INDIA- 
RUBBER PLANTS— THE ORCHILLA— REDWOOD POWDER— VEGETABLE 
FIBRES— SKINS OF ANIMALS— IVORY— THE CLUMATF^DIPORTANCE OF 
THE EXPEDITION, BOTH COMMERCIALLY AND POLITICALLY-RETURN 
OF STANLEY TO ENGLAND 4S0 



«"^ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK xxnr. 

FOUNDING OF THE FREE CONGO STATE. 

rHE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE CONGO SEEKS RECOONITION 
FROM FOREIGN POWERS— TREATY BETWEEN ENGLAND AND PORTU- 
GAL—EARL GRANVILLE— CLAIMS OF PORTUGAL— CONCESSION OF ENG- 
LAND—KING LEOPOLD OBTAINS THE ASSISTANCE OF THE GERMAN 
CHANCELLOR AND THE SYMPATHIES OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC- 
PRINCE BISMARCK PROTESTS— LETTER TO BARON DE COURCEL, 
FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT BERLIN— THE BARON'S REPLY— FRANCE 
AND GERMANY IN ACCORD— CALL FOR A CONFERENCE OF THE POW- 
ERS AT BERLIN— THE CONFERENCE ASSEMBLES— PRINCE BISMARCK 
OPENS THE CONFERENCE WITH AN ADDRESS STATING ITS OBJECT- 
MR. STANLEY A DELEGATE— ASKED TO GIVE HIS VIEWS— MR. STAN- 
LEY'S SUGGESTIONS— DELIBERATIONS OF THE CONFERENCE— RESULTS 
OF THE CONFERENCE— PROTOCOL SIGNED BY ALL THE PLENIPOTEN- 
TIARIES—THE UNITED STATES THE FIRST TO PUBLICLY RECOGNIZE 
THE FLAG OF THE FREE CONGO STATE— HONORS TO MR. STANLEY IN 
GERMANY 431 



CHAPTER XXY. 

EMIN PASHA, GOVERNOR OF THE SOUDANESE PROVINCES. 

SKETCH OF HIS EARLY LIFE— HIS REAL NAME— A SILESIAN BY BIRTH- 
STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRESLAU— BECOMES A PHYSICIAN- 
GOES TO TURKEY, AND THENCE TO ANTIVARI AND SCUTARI— AT- 
TACHED TO THE COURT OF VALIS ISMAEL PASHA HAGGI— RETURNS 
HOME 1873— IN 1875 GOES TO EGYPT— ENTERS THE EGYPTIAN SERVICE 
AS "DR. EMIN EFFENDI "—MEETS WITH GENERAL GORDON— RECEIVES 
THE POST OF COMMANDER OF LADO, TOGETHER WITH THE GOVERN- 
MENT OF THE EQUATORIAL PROVINCE— DEATH OF GENERAL GORDON 
AND RETREAT OF LORD WOLSELEY'S ARMY— BECOMES DEPENDENT 
UPON HIS OWN RESOURCES AFTER ALL COMMUNICATION WITH THE 
EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT IS CUT OFF— ENCOMPASSED BY HOSTILE 
TRIBES, IS LOST TO THE REST OF THE WORLD— A RESUME OF WHAT 
HE EFFECTED IN HIS ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS— HIS 
DIARY— EXTRACTS SENT TO FRIENDS— INSURRECTION, AND INVASION 
OF THE PROVINCE BY THE MAHDI'S FORCES— HIS POSITION VERY 
CRITICAL— EXCITES THE SYMPATHY OF THE WHOLE WORLD 446 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XXYI. 

THE EMIN BEY RELIEF EXPEDITION. 

PUBLIC OPINION IN ENGLAND-A RELIEF COMMITTEE ORGANIZED— SUB- 
SCRIPTION OF FUNDS TO DEFRAY THE EXPENSES OF AN EXPEDITION- 
HENRY M. STANLEY CALLED TO ENGLAND BY CABLE— ACCEPTS COM- 
MAND OF THE RELIEF EXPEDITION-STANLEY'S OPINION AS TO THE 
CHARACTER OF THE EXPEDITION AND THE BEST ROUTE— REACHES 
ZANZIBAR— MEETS TIPPU-TIB— SUPPLIED WITH 600 CARRIERS-CON- 
SENTS TO ACCOMPANY STANLEY— SAILS FOR THE MOUTH OF THE 
CONGO FEBRUARY 25th— REACHES THE ARUWIMI IN JUNE— LEAVES 
A REARGUARD AT YAMBUYA— ADVANCES TOWARDS ALBERT NYANZA 
ALONG THE VALLEY OF THE ARUWIMI— STARTLING RUMORS— STANLEY 
AND EMIN REPORTED TO BE IN THE HANDS OF THE ARABS-A LETTER 
IN PROOF RECEIVED FROM A MAHDIST OFFICER IN THE SOUDAN- 
NEWS OP DISASTERS ON THE CONGO— MURDER OF DR. BARTTELOT— 
DEATH OF MR. JAMIESON— THE GLOOMY NEWS REGARDING STANLEY'S 
FATE— THE OPINION OF THOMSON, THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER— NEWS 
OF STANLEY'S ARRIVAL AT EMIN'S CAPITAL RECEIVED DECEMBER, 
1888-FIRST NEWS FROM STANLEY HIMSELF APRIL 3, 1889— FULL AC- 
COUNT OF HIS MARCH, AND THE TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES SUFFERED, 
FROM YAMBUYA TO THE ALBERT NYANZA 45 T 



CHAPTER XXYH. 

MEETING OF STANLEY AND EMIN PASHA. 

EMIN PASHA ARRIVES BY STEAMER, ACCOMPANIED BY CASATI AND MR. 
JEPHSON— MEETING WITH STANLEY— CAMP TOGETHER FOR TWENTY- 
SIX DAYS— STANLEY RETURNS TO FORT BODO— LEAVES JEPHSON WITH 
EMIN— RELIEVES CAPT. NELSON AND LIEUT. STAIRS— TERRIBLE LOSS 
SUFFERED BY LIEUT. STAIR'S PARTY— LEAVES FORT BODO FOR 
KILONGA-LONGA'S AND UGARROWWA— T H E LATTER DESERTED— 
MEETS THE REAR COLUMN OF THE EXPEDITION A WEEK LATER AT 
BUNALYA— MEETS BONNY, AND LEARNS OF THE DEATH OF MAJOR 
BARTTELOT— TERRIBLE WRECK OF THE REAR COLUMN— SEVENTY-ONE 
OUT OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN LEFT— THE RECORD ONE 
OF DISASTER, DESERTION AND DEATH— INTERVIEW WITH EMIN— 
EMIN'S CONDITION— EMIN AND JEPHSON SURROUNDED BY THE REB- 
ELS AND TAKEN PRISONERS— STANLEY'S RETURN A SECOND TIME TO 
ALBERT NYANZA— LETTER OF STANLEY GEOGRAPHICALLY DESCRIBING 
THE FOREST REGION TRAVERSED BY HIM— SKETCHES THE COURSE OF 
THE ARUWIMI— A RETROSPECT OF HIS THRILLING EXPERIENCES AS 
FAR AS THE VICTORIA NYANZA, AUGUST 28th, 1889 481 



'^vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK XXVIII 

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES EN ROUTE. 

FINDS THAT BAKER HAS MADE AN ERROR— ALTITUDES OF LAKE ALBERT 
AND THE BLUE MOUNTAINS— VACOVIA— DISCOVERS THE LOFTY RUE- 
VENZORI— THE NILE OR THE CONGO?— THE SEMLIKI RIVER— THE 
PLAINS OF NOONGORA— THE SALT LAKES OF KATIVE— NEW PEOPLES, 
WAKONYU OF THE GREAT MOUNTAINS— THE AWAMBA— WASONYORA— 
WANYORA BANDITS— LAKE ALBERT EDWARD— THE TRIBES AND SHEP- 
HERD RACES OF THE EASTERN UPLANDS— W AN YANKORI—W ANY ARU- 
WAMBA— WAZINYA— A HARVEST OF NEW FACTS— THE IMPORTANCE 
OF STANLEY'S ADDITION TO THE VICTORIA NYANZA 501 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

FROM THE ALBERT NYANZA TO THE INDIAN OCEAN. 

EMIN PASHA'S INDECISION— MUCH TIME WASTED— STANLEY GROWS IM- 
PATIENT— JEPHSON'S REPORT-STANLEY DEMANDS POSITIVE ACTION, 
AND THREATENS TO MARCH HOMEWARD ON FEBRUARY 13th— RE- 
CEIVES EMIN'S REPLY, ACCEPTING THE ESCORT, ON THE DAY HE HAD 
PROPOSED TO BEGIN HIS RETURN MARCH— STANLEY FURNISHES CAR- 
RIERS TO HELP HIM UP WITH HIS LUGGAGE-STANLEY GREATLY HIN- 
DERED BY THE SUSPICIONS OF THE NATIVES— CONVALESCENT FROM 
HIS RECENT SEVERE ILLNESS, STANLEY LEAVES KAVALLIS WITH HIS 
UNITED EXPEDITION, FOR THE INDIAN OCEAN, APRIL 12th— LETTER 
OF LIEUT. W. G. STAIRS— REACHES URSUL ALA— STANLEY'S LETTER TO 
SIR FRANCIS DE WINSTON— EXPEDITIONS FITTED OUT AND FOR- 
WARDED TO THE INTERIOR TO MEET STANLEY— STANLEY REACHES 
MSUWAH NOVEMBER 29th— MEETS THE "HERALD" COMMISSIONER- 
REACHES MBIKI DECEMBER 1st— KIGIRO, DECEMBER 3d— BAGAMOYO, 
DECEMBER 4th— ENTERS ZANZIBAR, DECEMBER 5th— SAD ACCIDENT 
BEFALLS EMIN PASHA— SERIOUSLY, IF NOT FATALLY, INJURED— THE 
END OF A MOST REMARKABLE AND EXTRAORDINARY EXPEDITION— 
THE CLOSING WORDS OF STANLEY'S STORY 508 



Daring Deeds 

IN 

The Tropics- 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

A Brief Account of Africa — Its Ancient Civilization — Little Information Extant 
in Relation to Large Portions of the Continent — The Great Field of Scientific 
Explorations and Missionary Labor — Account of a Number of Exploring 
Expeditions, including those of Mungo Park, Denham and Clapperton, and 
others — Their Practical Results— Desire of Further Information Increased — 
Recent Explorations, notably those of Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley, rep- 
resenting the New York " Herald " newspaper. 

A work of standard authority among scholars says 
that " Africa is the division of the world which is the 
most interesting, and about which we know the least." 
Its very name is a mystery; no one can more than 
approximately calculate its vast extent; even those 
who have studied the problem the most carefully 
widely disagree among themselves as to the number 
of its population, some placing it as low as 6o,ooo,cxx), 
others much in excess of ioo,oc)0,cxx:> souls; its su 

(17) 



iS Stanley's story; or, 

perficial configuration In many portions is only guessed 
at ; the sources of its mightiest river are unknown 
The heats, deserts, wild beasts, venomous reptiles, 
and savage tribes of this great continent have raised 
the only barrier against the spirit of discovery and 
progress, elsewhere irrepressible, of the age, and no 
small proportion of Africa is to-day as much a terra 
incognita as when the father of history wrote. Many 
of its inhabitants are among the most barbarous and 
depraved of all the people of the world, but in ancient 
times some of its races were the leaders of all men 
in civilization and were unquestionably possessed of 
mechanical arts and processes which have long been 
lost in the lapse of ages. They had vast cities, great 
and elaborate works of art, and were the most suc- 
cessful of agriculturists. Noted for their skill in the 
management of the practical affairs of life, they also 
paid profound attention to the most abstruse questions 
of religion ; and it was a people of Africa, the Egypt- 
ians, who first announced belief In the resurrection of 
the body 'and the Immortality of the soul. Large 
numbers of mummies, still existing, ages older than 
the Christian era, attest the earnestness of the ancient 
faith in dogmas which form an essential part of the 
creed of nearly every Christian sect. The most 
magnificent of women In the arts of coquetry and 
voluptuous love belonged to this continent of which 
so much still sits In darkness. The art of war was 
here cultivated to the greatest perfection ; and it was 
before the army of an African general that the Ro- 
man legions went down at Cannae, and by whom the 
Empire came near being completely ruined. Indeed, 



THROUGH THE WII-DS OF AFRICA. ig 

it may with much show of argument be claimed that 
the continent over so much of which ignorance and 
superstition and beasts of prey now hold thorough 
sway, was originally the cradle of art, and civilization, 
and human progress. 

But if the northern portion of the continent of 
Africa was in the remote past the abode of learning 
and of the useful arts, it is certain that during recent 
periods other portions of the continent, separated 
from this by a vast expanse of desert waste, have 
supplied the world with the most lamentable examples 
of human misery and the most hideous instances of 
crime. Nor did cupidity and rapacity confine them- 
selves in the long years of African spoliation to or- 
dinary robbers and buccaneers. Christian nations 
took part in the horrid work ; and we have the au- 
thority of accredited history for the statement that 
Elizabeth of England was a smuggler and a slave- 
trader. Thus Africa presents the interesting anomaly 
of having been the home of ancient civilization, and 
the prey of the modern rapacity and plunder of all 
nations. It is natural, therefore, that in regard to the 
plundered portions of this devoted continent, the 
world at large should know but little. It is also nat- 
ural that with the advancement of the cause of scien- 
tific knowledge, humanity, genuine Christianity, and 
the rage for discovery, this vast territory should re- 
ceive the attention of good and studious men and 
moral nationalities. Accordingly we find that during 
a comparatively recent period Africa has become a 
great field of scientific explorations and missionary 
labor, as well as of colonization. 



20 STANLEYS STORY;' OR, 

The first people to give special and continued at 
tention to discoveries In Africa, were the Portuguese 
During the fifteenth century, noted for the great ad- 
vance made in geographical discoveries, the kingdom 
of Portugal was, perhaps, the greatest maritime power 
of Christendom. Her sovereigns greatly encouraged 
and many of their most illustrious subjects practical- 
ly engaged in voyages of discovery. They were pre- 
eminently successful both in the eastern and western 
hemisphere, and one of the results of their daring 
enterprise is the remarkable fact that Portuguese col- 
onies are much more powerful and wealthy to-day 
than the parent kingdom. , 

" The Child is father of the Man." 

The Portuguese sent many exploring expeditions 
along the coast of Africa, and in the course of a cen- 
tury they had circumnavigated the continent and 
planted colonies all along the shores of the Atlantic 
and the Indian oceans. Bartholmew Dias having 
discovered the Cape of Good Hope, the reigning 
sovereign of Portugal determined to prosecute the 
explorations still further, with the object of discover- 
ing a passage to India. This discovery was made by 
the intrepid and illustrious mariner, Vasco de Gama, 
November 20, 1497, a little more than five years after 
the discovery of America. He pursued his voyage 
along the eastern coast of Africa, discovering Natal 
Mozambique, a number of islands, and finding people 
in a high stage of commercial advancement, with 
well-built cities, ports, mosques for the worship of 
Allah according to the Mohammedan faith, and car- 
rj'ingona considerable trade with India and the Spice 










iMiriii'if Illlli'iHI 
I i' 




|i!|'ll||;;||||i^ 






Si 1 i 



: 



i ! I 



^l^^l^l^^l^M^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



!l!!illi'''fiiliii^^i 
I'' i i I 
ii I i II I 



ill liiil 






liHi 



i iiiriiis'fi i 
11^ i 



■iifeliHiiiiillil 



I 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 21 

Islands. Of this trade, Portugal long retained supre 
macy. Other European powers also meantime es 
tablished colonies at different places on the African 
coast, so that in the sixteenth century a considerabl-;: 
portion of the outer shell, so to say, had been examined 
The vast interior, however, long remained unexplor 
ed, and much of it remains an utterly unknown pri 
raeval wilderness to this day. The settlements and 
colonies of the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English 
were for commercial purposes only, and added very 
little to the general stock of information. 

It was not until a year after the adoption of the 
(Constitution of the United States that any organized 
effort in behalf of discoveries in Africa was made. 
In the city of London a Society for the Exploration 
of Interior Africa was formed in 1788, but it was not 
until seven years afterwards, that the celebrated 
Mungo Park undertook his first expedition. Thus it 
was more than three hundred years from the discovery 
of the Cape of Good Hope before even a ray of light 
began to penetrate the darkness of benighted Africa. 
Meantime, great empires had been overthrown and 
others established in their place and beneficent gov- 
ernments founded on both continents of the western 
world. 

The life and adventures of Mungo Par^ ^orm a 
story of exceeding interest, between which and the 
life and adventures of Dr. Livinofstone there are not 
a few points of remarkable coincidence. Park was a 
native of Scotland, and one of many children. He 
was educated also in the medical profession. More- 
over, while he was making his first tour of discovery 



22 STANi.. , story; OR, 

In Africa, having long Deen absent from home, reports 
of his death reached England and were universally 
credited. His arrival at Falmouth in December 
1797, caused a most agreeable surprise throughout 
the kingdom. An account of his travels abounding 
with thrilling incidents, including accounts of great 
suffering from sickness and cruelty at the hands ol 
Mohammedan Africans on the Niger, was extensive- 
ly circulated. Many portions of this narrative were 
in about all the American school books during the 
first half of the nineteenth century, and the name ol 
Mungo Park became as familiar as household words in 
the United States. In 1805, Park undertook another 
tour of discovery, which he prosecuted for some time 
with indomitable courage and against difficulties before 
which an ordinary mind would have succumbed. He 
navigated the Niger for a long distance, passing Jen- 
nee, Timbuctoo, and Yaoori, but was soon after at- 
tacked in a narrow channel, and, undertaking to escape 
by swimming, was drowned. His few remaining white 
companions perished with him. 

The discoveries of this celebrated man were in that 
part of Africa which lies between the equator and 
the 20th degree of north latitude. They added much 
to the knowledge of that portion of the country, and 
keenly whetted the desire of further information. 
Several journeys and voyages up rivers followed, but 
without notable result till the English expedition 
under Denham and Clapperton in 1822. This expe- 
dition started with a caravan of merchants from 
Tripoli on the Mediterranean, and after traversing 
the great desert reached Lake Tsad in interior Africa 




DR. DAVID LIVINGSTONE; 



tMROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. ^3 

Denham explored the lake and its shores, while Lieut 
Clapperton pursued his journey westward as far as 
Sakatu, which is not greatly distant from the Niger. 
He retraced his steps, and having visited England, 
began a second African tour, starting from near Cape 
Coast Castle on the Gulf of Guinea. Traveling in 
a northeastern direction,^he struck the Niger at Boussa, 
and going by way of Kano, a place of considerable 
commercial importance, again arrived at Sakatu, where 
he shortly afterwards died. He was the first man 
who had traversed Africa from the Mediterranean sea 
to the Gulf of Guinea Richard Lander, a servant 
of Lieut, Clapperton, afterwards discovered the course 
of the Niger from Boussa to the gulf, finding it iden- 
tical with the river Nun of the seacoast. 

Other tours of discovery into Africa have been 
made to which it is not necessary here to refer. The 
practical result of all these expeditions, up to about 
the middle of the ninetenth century, was a rough 
outline of information in regard to the coast coun- 
tries of Africa, the course of the Niger, the manners 
and customs of the tribes of Southern Africa, and a 
little more definite knowledge concerning Northern 
and Central Africa, embracing herein the great des- 
ert, Lake Tsad, the river Niger, and the people be- 
tween the desert and the Gulf of Guinea, Perhaps 
the most comprehensive statement ol the effect of 
thi-s information upon Christian peoples was that it 
seemed to conclusively demonstrate an imperative 
demand for missionary labors. Even the Mohamme- 
dans of the Moorish Kingdom ol Ludamar, set loose 
a wild boar upon Mungo Park. They were aston- 



24 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Ished that the wild beast assailed the Moslems instead 
of the Christian, and afterwards shut the two together 
in a hut, while King and council debated whether the 
white man should lose his right arm, his eyes, or his 
life. During the debate, the traveler escaped. If 
the Mohammedan Africans were found to be thus 
cruel, it may well be inferred that those of poorer 
faith were no less bloodthirsty. And thus, as one of 
the results of the expeditions to which we have re- 
ferred, a renewed zeal in proselytism and discovery 
w?>s developed. 

Thus, the two most distinguished African travellers, 
and who have published the most varied, extensive, 
and v^aluable information in regard to that continent, 
performed the labors of their first expeditions co- 
temporaneously, the one starting from the north of 
Africa, the other from the south. We can but refer to 
the distinguished Dr. Heinreich Barth, and him who 
is largely referred to in this volume. Dr. David Liv- 
ingstone. The expeditions were not connected the 
one with the other, but had this in common that both 
were begun under the auspices of the British govern- 
ment and people. A full narrative of Dr. Barth s 
travels and discoveries has been published, from which 
satisfactory information in regard to much of north- 
ern and central Africa may be obtained. The 
narrative is highly interesting and at once of great 
popular and scientific value. Hence the world has 
learned the geography of a wide expanse of country 
round about Lake Tsad in all directions; far toward 
Abyssinia northeasterly, as far west by north as Tim- 
buctoo, several hundred miles southeasterly, and as 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 2$ 

far toward the southwest, along the River Benue, as 
the junction of the Faro. Dr. Barth remained in 
Africa six years, much of the time without a single 
white associate, his companions in the expedition 
having all died. Dr. Overweg, who was the first 
European to navigate Lake Tsad, died in Septembei, 
1852. Mr. Richardson, the official chief of the ex- 
pedition, had died in March of the previous year. 

But unquestionably the most popular of African 
explorers is Dr. Livingstone, an account of whose 
first expedition — 1849-52 — has been read by a great 
majority of intelligent persons speaking the English 
language. Large and numerous editions were speed- 
ily demanded, and Africa again became an almost 
universal topic of discourse. Indeed, intelligence of 
Dr. Livingstone's return after so many years of toil 
and danger, was rapidly spread among the nations, 
accompanied by brief reports of his explorations, and 
these prepared the way for the reception of the 
Doctor's great work by vast numbers of people. 
Every one was ready and anxious to carry the war of 
his reading into Africa. And afterwards, when Dr. 
Livingstone returned to Africa, and having prosescu ted 
his explorations for a considerable period reports 
came of his death at the hands of cruel and treach- 
erous natives, interest in exact knowledge of his fate 
became intense and appeared only to increase upon 
the receipt of reports contradicting the first, and then 
again of rumors which appeared to substantiate those 
which had been first received. In consequence of the 
conHicting statements which, on account of the uni- 
versal interest in the subject, were published in the 



26 STANLEY*S STORY; O^, 

public press throughout the world, the whole Chi is 
tian church, men of letters and science became fairly 
agitated. The sensation was profound, and, based 
upon admiration of a man of piety, sublime courage, 
and the most touching self-denial in a great cause to 
which he had devoted all his bodily and intellectual 
powers, it was reasonable and philosophical. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that the English 
government should have fitted out an expedition in 
search of Livingstone. Accordingly, the Livingstone 
Search Expedition, as it is called, was organized early 
in the winter of 1871-72, and under command of Lieut 
Dawson, embarked on its destination, on the 9th oi 
February of the last year. The expedition reached 
Zanzibar April 19, and the members were most kindly 
received by the Sultan, Sayid Bergash, and greatly 
assisted by his Grand Vizier, Sayid Suliman. A 
company of six Nasik youths, originally slaves in a 
part of Africa through which the Search Expedition 
would pass, were being drilled for the purpose, and 
were expected to be of great assistance. 

But before intelligence of the Livingstone Search 
Expedition at Zanzibar awaiting favorable weather, 
had arrived, the world was startled by the news that 
a private expedition, provided solely by the New 
York "Herald" newspaper, and in charge of Mr. 
Henry M. Stanley, had succeeded, after surmounting 
incredible difficulties, in reaching Ujiji, where a meet- 
ing of the most remarkable nature took place between 
the great explorer and the representative of the en- 
terprising journal of New York. Unique in its origin, 
m'^st remarkable in the accomplishment of its benefi- 



THROUGH THE WH.DS OF AFRICA, 2'] 

cent purpose, the Herald-Livingstone expedition had 
received the considerate approval of mankind, and 
Mr. Stanley had come to be regarded, and with justice, 
as a practical hero of a valuable kind. His accounts 
of his travels, his despatches to the " Herald " from 
time to time, the more formal narratives furnished by 
him, composed a story of the deepest interest and, 
v^hen properly considered, of the greatest value. This 
interest has also been deepened and greatly strength- 
ened by the later labors of Stanley in the great field 
made memorable by Livingstone; and in the results of 
later explorations we have it fairly demonstrated that 
the life-work of the elder explorer did not end with 
his death, but has fallen upon the shoulders of one in 
every respect qualified to carry on the good work. 

To fully appreciate the work done and to thoroughly 
comprehend its bearing upon Christian civilization, 
the reader will find in these pages a brief resume of 
the most important incidents in the life history of Liv- 
ingstone, with accounts of his several explorations into 
the African continent. Hence, these, in connection 
with those of Stanley respecting his later researches, 
will serve to make a volume of extremely interesting 
reading upon a subject of universal interest to all 
Christian people. 




CHAPTER IL 

GEOLOGY OF AFRICA— ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

The General Geological Formation of the Continent— The Want of Compre 
^enajye Inycstigation— Singular Facts as to the Desert of Sahara— The Qnes 
tlon ol the Antiquity of Man— Is Africa the Birth-place of the Human Race ? 
Opinions of Scientists Tending to Answer in the Affirmative — Darwinism. 

It is to be greatly regretted that no comprehensive 
geological surveys of Africa have ever been made ; 
because there are certain questions, eventually to be 
settled by geology, whose determination, it appears 
to be agreed, will be finally resolved by investigations 
in this continent In a volume of this nature, de- 
signed for the general reader, those facts and reason- 
ings only need be referred to which may be supposed 
to have the most interest. Reference has already 
been made to Sir Roderick Murchison's exposition of 
the trough-shaped form of South Africa in his dis- 
course before the Royal Geographical Society in 1852 
- — an exposition which was so remarkably substantiated 
by Dr. Livingstone in his journey across the conti- 
nent from Loanda to Kilimane. Though in its geo- 
graphical configuration Africa is not greatly unlike 
South America, in its geological structure it much 
more resembles the northern continent of the west- 
em hemisphere. The Appalachian range of mount- 
ains extending through nearly the whole of the east- 
ern portion of North America, parallel with the coast, 

28 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 29 

and the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas in the 
west, bear a notable resemblance to those ranges of 
mountains in Africa, which, rising first in the northern 
portions of Senegambia, pursue a south-easterly, then 
a southerly course to near the southern limit of the 
continent, when they sharply bend toward the north- 
east, and with many lofty peaks, some of which reach 
the region of eternal snow, pass through Mozambique, 
Zanguebar, and end not until after they have passed 
through Abyssinia and Nubia, and penetrated the lim- 
its of Egypt. In Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and Moroc- 
co, is the Atlas range, between which and the begin- 
ning of the other the distance is hardly so great as 
that between the southern limits of the Appalachian 
range and the mountains of Mexico. The course of 
each of the great rivers of these continents is also 
across the degrees of latitude instead of generally 
parallel with the equator, as is the case with the great 
river of South America. There is a similarity also 
between North America and Africa in an extensive 
system of inland lakes of fresh water and vast extent. 
The geological structure of the mountains of Afri- 
ca, especially of South Africa, appears to be quite 
uniform. They have a neucleus of granite which 
often appears at the surface and forms the predomina- 
ting rock, but ir the greater proportion of the mount- 
ains, perhaps, the granite is overlain by vast masses of 
sandstone, easily distinguished by the numerous peb- 
bles of quartz which are embedded in it. The sum- 
mit, when composed of granite, is usually round and 
smooth, but when composed of the quartzose sand- 
stone is often perfectly flat. Of this Table Mount, 



30 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

in South Africa, is a notable illustration. The thick- 
ness of this stratum of sandstone is sometimes not 
less than 2,000 feet. Such is the case in the Karoo 
mountains of Cape Colony. When thus appearing, 
it may be seen forming steep, mural faces, resembling 
masonry, or exhibiting a series of salient angles and 
indentations as sharp, regular, and well-defined as if 
they had been chiselled. With the granite are often 
associated primitive schists, the decomposition of 
which seems to have furnished the chief ingredients 
of the thin, barren clay which forms the characteris- 
tic coverinof of so much of the South African mount- 
ains. In some places, more recent formations appear, 
and limestone is seen piercing the surface. The geo- 
logical constitution of the Atlas Mountains, in north- 
western Africa, presents old limestone alternating 
with a schist, often passing to a well-characterized 
micaceous schist, or gneiss, the stratification of which 
is exceedingly irregular. Volcanic rocks have here 
been found in small quantities. There are veins of 
copper, iron, and lead. 

In Egypt we find the alluvial soil a scarcely less in- 
teresting object of study than the rocks upon which 
it rests. These are limestone, sandstone, and granite, 
the latter of which, in Upper Egypt, often rises i,ooc 
feet above the level of the Nile. Not many years ago 
were discovered about 100 miles east of the Nile, and 
in 28 deg. 4 min. of north latitude the splendid ruins of 
the ancient Alabastropolis, which once derived wealth 
from its quarries of alabaster. Farther south are the 
ancient quarries of jasper, porphyry, and verd antique 
The emerald mines of Zebarah lay near the Red Sea 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 3 1 

The Atlas range in Algeria is better known than 
elsewhere. It is as described above, but at Calle there 
are distinct traces of ancient volcanoes. Iron, cop- 
per, gypsum, and lead are found in considerable quan- 
tities. Cinnabar is found in small quantities. Salt 
and thermal springs abound in many parts of Alge- 
ria, amethysts in Morocco, slates in Senegambia, and 
iron in Liberia, Guinea, the Desert of Sahara and 
many other parts of Africa. 

Gold, gold-dust, and iron are among the best known 
of the mineral riches of Africa, and are the most 
generally diffused throughout the continent In the 
country of Bambouk, in Senegambia, most of the 
gold which finds its way to the west coast is found. 
Here the mines are open to all, and are worked by 
natives who live in villages. The richest gold mine 
of Bambouk, and the richest, it is believed, yet dis- 
covered in Africa, is that of Natakoo — an isolated 
hill, some 300 feet high and 3,000 feet in circumfer- 
ence, the soil of which contains gold in the shape of 
lumps, grains, and spangles, every cubic foot being 
loaded, it is said, with the precious metal. The auri- 
ferous earth is first met with about four feet from the 
surface, becoming more abundant with increase of 
depth. In searching for gold the natives have perfor- 
ated the hill in all directions with pits some six feet 
in diameter and forty or fifty feet deep. At a depth 
of twenty feet from the surface lumps of pure gold 
of from two to ten grains weight are found. There 
are other mines in this portion of Africa, gold hav- 
ing been found distributed over a surface of 1,200 
square miles. The precious metal is not only found 



32 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

In hills, the most of which are composed of soft argil 
laceous earth, but in the beds of rivers and smaller 
streams, so that the lines of Bishop Heber's well- 
known missionary hymn are truthful as well as 
poetical : — 

** Where Afric's sunny fountains, 
Roll down their golden sands." 

The gold mines of Semayla, which are some forty 
or fifty miles northward of those of Natakoo, though 
nearly as rich as the latter, are in hills of rock and 
sandstone, which substances are pounded in mortars 
that the gold may be extracted. Barth judged that 
gold would be found in the Benue river, the principal 
eastern tributary of the Niger. Gold, silver, iron, 
lead and sulphur have been found in large quantities, 
and were long profitably mined in the mountainous 
districts of Angola. In Upper Guinea gold and iron 
are deposited in granitic or schistose rocks. The in- 
terior contains vast quantities of iron which might be 
easily mined, but the natives are not sufificiently en- 
terprising to accomplish much in this respect. Gold 
is also obtained in the beds of some of the rivers of 
Guinea. In Mozambique, on the east coast, the 
Portuguese have for a great length of time had a 
considerable commerce in gold obtained from mines 
near the Zambezi, in the region near the western 
limit of that province. It has already been stated 
that here Dr. Livingstone discovered deposits of 
coal. Along the Orange and Vaal rivers, in extreme 
South Africa, have recently been discovered diamond 
fields which some noted scientists believe will yet 
prove to be among the richest in the world. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 33 

Perhaps the portions of Africa which are the most 
Interesting on account of geological investigations 
which have been made, are the valley of the Nile In 
Egypt, and the Desert of Sahara. It is well known 
that the river Nile annually overflows its banks in 
Egypt, and the inundation remaining a considerable 
period, a thin layer of soil is each year added to that 
which existed there before. This Nile mud, as it is 
called by geologists, has been the subject of consider- 
able scientific examination for many years. In his 
work upon the " Geological Evidences of the An- 
tiquity of Man," Sir Charles Lyell gives a full ac- 
count of certain systematic borings in the Nile mud 
which were made between the years 1851 and 1854, 
under the superintendency of Mr. Leonard Horner 
but who employed to practically conduct the ex- 
aminations an intelligent, enterprising, and faithful 
Armenian officer of engineers, Hekekyan Bey, who 
had for many years pursued scientific studies in Eng- 
land, was in every way qualified for the task, and, 
unlike Europeans, was able to endure the climate 
during the hot months, when the waters of the Nile 
flow within their banks. Sir Charh s Lyell states 
that the results of chief importance irising out of 
this inquiry were obtained from two sets of shafts 
and borings — sunk at intervals in lin< s crossing the 
great valley from east to west. On( of these con- 
sisted of fifty-one pits and artesian perforations 
made where the valley is sixteen mll< ;s wide between 
the Arabian and the Libyan deserts, in the latitude 
of Hellopolis, about eight miles above [the apex of 
the delta. The other line of pits and borings, twenty- 



34 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

seven in number, was in the parallel of Memphis 
where the valley is five miles wide. Besides Hekek- 
yan Bey .several engineers and some sixty workmen, 
inured to the clim.ate, were employed for several 
years, auring the dry season, in the furtherance ol 
these interesting investigations. 

It was found that in all the works the sediment 
passed through was similar in composition to the 
ordinary Nile mud of the present day, except near 
the margin of the valley, where thin layers of 
quartzose sand, such as is sometimes blown from the 
adjacent desert by violent winds, were observed to 
alternate with the loam. A remarkable absence of 
lamination and stratifi::ation, the geologist goes on 
to say, was observed almost universally in the sedi- 
ment brought up from all points except where the 
sandy layers above alluded to occurred, the mud 
closely agreeing in character with the ancient loam 
of the Rhine. Mr. Horner attributes this want of all 
indication of successive deposition to the extreme 
thinness of the film of matter which is thrown down 
annually on the great alluvial plain during the season 
of inundation. The tenuity of this layer must in- 
deed be extreme, if the French engineers are toler- 
ably correct in their estimate of the amount of sedi- 
ment formed in a century, which they suppose not to 
exceed on the average five inches. It is stated, in 
other words, that the increase is not more than the 
twentieth part of an inch each year, or one foot in 
the period of 240 years. All the remains of organic 
bodies found during these investigations under 
Hekeky^n Bey belonged to living species. Bones of 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 35 

the ox, hog, dog, dromedary, and ass were not un- 
common, but no vestiges of extinct mammalia were 
found, and no marine shells were anywhere detected 
These excavations were on a large scale, in some in- 
stances for the first sixteen or twenty-four feet. In 
these pits, jars, vases, and a small human figure in 
burnt clay, a copper knife, and other entire articles 
were dug up; but when water soaking through from ? 
the Nile was reached, the boring instrument used 
was too small to allow of more than fragments of 
works of art being brought up. Pieces of burnt brick 
and pottery were constantly being extracted, and 
from all depths, even where they sank sixty feet be- 
low the surface toward the central parts of the val- 
ley. In none of these cases did they get to the bot- 
tom of the alluvial soil. If it be assumed that the 
sediment of the valley has increased at the rate of 
six inches a century, bricks at the depth of sixty feet 
have been buried 12,000 years. If the increase has 
been five inches a century, they have lain there dur- 
ing a period of 14,400 years. Lyell states further on 
that M. Rosiere, in the great French work on Egypt 
has estimated the rate of deposit of sediment in the 
delta at two inches and three lines in a century. A 
fragment of red brick has been excavated a short 
distance from the apex of the delta at a depth of 
seventy-two feet. At a rate of deposit of two and a- 
half inches a century, a work of art seventy-two feet 
deep must have been buried more than 30,000 years 
ago. Lyell frankly states, however, that if the bor- 
ing was made where an arm of the river had been 
silted up at a time when the apex of the delta was 



36 Stanley's story; or, 

somewhat further south, or more distant from the 
sea than now, the brick in question might be com- 
paratively very modern. It is agreed by the best 
geologists that the age of the Nile mud cannot be 
accurately, but only approximately calculated by the 
data thus far furnished. The amount of matter 
thrown down by the waters in different parts of the 
plain varies so much that to strike an average with 
any approach to accuracy must be most difficult. 
The nearest approach, perhaps, as has been observed 
by Baldwin, to obtaining an accurate chronometric 
scale for ascertaining the age of the deposits of the 
Nile at a given point, was made near Memphis, at the 
statue of King Rameses. It is known that this 
statue was erected about the year 1260 B. C. In 
1854 it had stood there 3,1 14 years. During that time 
the alluvium had collected to the depth of nina feet 
and four inches above its base, which was at the rate 
of about three and a half inches in each century. 
Mr. Horner found the alluvium, below the base of 
the statue, to be thirty feet deep, and pottery was 
found within four inches of the bottom of the allu- 
vium. If the rate of accumulation previous to the 
building of the statue had been the same as subse- 
quently, the formation of the alluvium began, at that 
point, about 11,660 years before the Christian era, 
and men lived there some 12,360 years ago, cultivat- 
ing the then thin soil of the valley. But it would 
appear to be certain that the average deposit is so 
slight annually that many centuries more than those 
formerly quite universally received as the age of the 
world for the stage of mankind's achievements must 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. ^^ 

have passed since the work of man's hands have 
been buried under these vast deposits of alluvium. 
Thus, geology insists, is the fact of man's existence, 
long before the historic era, conclusively established 

The Desert of Sahara presents some interesting 
facts of the same nature. It has already been stated 
that this part of Africa was ocean within a compara 
lively recent geological period. Tristram and several 
French officers of scientific attainments, who have 
made geological examinations of large portions of the 
desert have shown that the northern margin is lined 
with ancient sea-beaches and lines of terraces — the 
"rock-bound coasts" of the old ocean. Numerous 
salt-lakes exist in the desert which are tenanted by 
the common cockle. A species of Haligenes which 
inhabits the .Gulf of Guinea is found in a salt lake in 
latitude 30 deg. north and longitude 7 deg. east, sep- 
arated, therefore, from its present marine habitat by 
the whole extent of the great desert, and the vast ex- 
panse of Soudan and Guinea Geologists hence con- 
clude that the existing fauna, including man, occupied 
Africa long before the Sahara became dry land Ref- 
erence has been made in the preceding chapter to the 
supposed remarkably beneficent effect this great ex- 
panse of desert, heated sands, and hot air, has upon 
the climate, and consequently upon the civilization of 
Europe. 

It is probable that from the fact that Sahara was 
about the last extensive portion of earth to be aban- 
doned by the ocean, that the general opinion became 
prevalent that the continent of Africa was, geologi- 
cally, the most recent of the grand divisions of the 



38 Stanley's story; or, 

earth. Though supposed to be the oldest In civiliza- 
tion, it has been supposed to be the youngest in geo- 
logical constitution, I am informed by scientific men 
that on account of recent investigations and reason- 
ings, the opinion has for some time been gaining 
ground that Africa is likely to be shown to be the 
oldest part of the globe in both respects, and to have 
been the original birthplace of the race of man. 

The negroid race, comprehending the Negroes, Hot 
tentots, and Algutos, are, it is claimed by many scien- 
tists, the most ancient of all the types of mankind, 
and since their appearance on earth vast geographi- 
cal changes have taken place. Continents have be- 
come ocean and sea has become land. "The negroes,"* 
says Lubbock, " are essentially a non-navigating race , 
they build no ships, and even the canoes of the Fee- 
jeeans are evidently copied from those of the Poly- 
nesians. Now what is the geographical distribution 
of the race ? They occupy all Africa south of Saha- 
ra, which neither they nor the rest of the true Afri- 
can fauna have ever crossed. And though they do not 
occur in Arabia, Persia, Hindoostan, Slam, or China, 
we find them in Madagascar, and In the Andaman 
Islands ; not in Java, Sumatra, or Borneo, but in the 
Malay Peninsula, in the Philllppine Islands, New 
Guinea, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Fee- 
jee Islands, and in Tasmania This remarkable dis- 
tribution Is perhaps most easily explicable on the hy- 
pothesis that since the negroid race came into exist- 
ence there must have been an immense tract of land 
or a chain of islands stretching from the eastern coast 
of Africa right across the Indian ocean • and secondly 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 39 

that the sea then occupied the area of the present 
great desert. In whatever manner, however, these 
facts are to be explained, they certainly indicate that 
the race Is one of very great antiquity." " It is man- 
ifest," says Baldwin in his Pre-HIstorlc Nations, "that 
Africa at a remote period was the theatre of great 
movements and mixtures of peoples and races, and 
that Its Interior countries had then a closer connec- 
tion with the great civilizations of the world than at 
any time during the period called historical." It is 
the opinion of this writer that the Cushite race — -the 
Ethiopians of Scripture — appeared first in the work 
of civilization, and that In remote antiquity that peo- 
ple exerted a mighty and wide-spread influence in 
human affairs, whose traces are still visible from far- 
ther India to Norway. Nor is he by any means 
alone in the opinion that the Carthagenians, ages ago 
sent their ships across the Atlantic to the American 
continent. The Cushites, or original Ethiopians orig- 
inated In Arabia, but their descendents are still found 
In northern Africa from Egypt to Morocco. Of this 
race are the Tuariks, the robbers of the Great Desert, 
to this day among the most magnificent specimens 
of physcal man to be found anywhere on the globe. 

The final solution of these problems of the geo- 
logical status of Africa, and the great antiquity of man 
can but be of the greatest interest to all thoughtful 
persons, Unquestlonablytheir solution will be great- 
«y hastened, should Dr. Livingstone succeed in the 
great enterprise upon which he is now engaged, and 
soon make known to the world the true sources of the 
Nile. His success therein would stimulate endeavor 



40 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Study, exploration, and, it is to be hoped, comprehen- 
sive and systematic surveys of a continent the evi- 
dences of whose civilization in remote ages lie buried 
among the debris of countless centuries. 

We know, from the imperfect investigations which 
have already been made, that cities have been en- 
gulfed in the sands of Sahara We know that vast 
changes have taken place in the physical structure oi 
the continent of Africa and of the world since the 
negro race first appeared. It is not improbable, there- 
fore, that where for so many ages beasts of prey and 
savage tribes have occupied a land oppressed with 
heat and burdened with many ills, there may yet be 
found evidences of former civilization and power in 
greatest possible contrast to present barbarism and 
national weakness. And who shall say that when the 
face of the continent was changed, whether by a great 
convulsion or by a gradual process, some of the people 
did not migrate northward, cross the Mediterranean 
and populate the continent which has since become the 
abode of the highest civilization and the greatest in- 
tellectual culture ? Who shall say that these races oi 
remote antiquity were not possessed of culture and 
arts and literature placing them very high in the scale 
of civilization ? Within the historic period those na- 
tions have passed away which were the acknowledged 
parents of modern culture and art. The power and 
versatility of the human mind, reason, eloquence, and 
poetry, were most sublimely illustrated by the Greeks, 
whose works still remain to benefit and instruct man- 
kind. Yet the freedom and power of this wonderful 
people have for more than twenty centuries been an- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 4I 

nihilated. The people, in the eloquent diction of Mac- 
aulay, have degenerated into timid slaves ; the lan- 
guage into a barbarous jargon ; and the beautiful 
temples of Athens " have been given up to the suc- 
cessive depredations of Romans, Turks, and Scotch- 
men." The vast empire of Rome has passed entirely 
away within a few centuries. She had herself annihi- 
lated Carthage leaving nothing, as we have seen, of 
the arts, literature, or institutions of a people whose 
ships had sailed on every wave from the Hellespont 
to the Baltic, and, not improbably, from the Mediter- 
ranean to the delta of the Mississippi. Other great 
nations are also known to have passed away or been 
destroyed, the nature of their civilization and institu- 
tions being left to conjecture based upon a few mon- 
uments or a few literary remains preserved by foreign 
writers. It being once established that man existed 
ages before what is commonly called the beginning of 
the historic period it would be simply logical, consid- 
ering many national destructions which have occurred 
during the historic period, to conclude by analogy 
that races of remote antiquity flourished and passed 
away leaving no sign, which has been yet discovered, 
of their power and civilization. It is evident the his- 
torian Macaulay thinks it not improbable such maybe 
the fate of England, and he expressly states in a well- 
known passage that the time may come when only a 
single naked fisherman may be seen in the river ol 
the ten thousand masts. It is difficult, if not impos- 
sible, for mankind entirely to overcome the tendency 
to decay. 
We shall presently see that Africa is a field upon 



42 STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

which must soon be decided a great issue of politico- 
social importance ; an issue which Involves the abo- 
lition of polygamy, domestic slavery, and the sup- 
pression of the foreign slave trade. From what has 
gone before in this volume, it will have been seen 
that here, too, are likely to be most conclusively 
demonstrated the vast age of the world, the great an- 
tiquity of man, and the nature of his origin. In com- 
parison of the settlement of this issue and the so- 
lution of these problems of science, even the dis- 
covery of the true sources of the Nile may be re- 
garded as unimportant, except for the reason that 
Dr. Livingstone's great achievement will arouse other 
men of science to similar sacrifices, labors, and forti- 
tude. Thus Africa Is found to present another re- 
markable contrast for our contemplation ; for while 
civilization is there at a lower ebb than in any other 
grand division of the globe, the highest intellectual 
efforts of the most astute thinkers of the times are 
turning their best efforts thitherward, in the con 
fident hope of greatly enlarging the sphere of human 
knowledge, and of extending the triumphs of science 
and civilization. 

There are many, it is true, who imagine that tht 
scientific inquiries which are being made in regard to 
the great age of the world, the races which existed 
long anterior to the historic period, and the origin of 
the human species are founded in a spirit of skepti- 
cism and hostility to Christian civilization, or, rather 
to Christianity as a religion. Doubtless there are 
many scientists who put no faith In Holy Writ, as much 
of it has been commonly understood. Others, and 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 43 

those among the most distinguished of men, are no 
less devout believers in Christianity than they are 
firm believers in the great age of the world and an- 
tiquity of man. The devotees of Christianity have 
in not a few instances mistaken an ally for an enemy 
This was notably the fact, in an example which is 
here most appropriate, in the case of the modern 
origin of the science of astronomy. The Christian 
church, as then existing, pronounced as religious 
heresy the plain truth that the world moves, and that 
the sun neither rises nor sets, but is stationary — the 
sublime centre of a universe ol planets and stars^ 
and, perhaps, inhabited worlds, whose movements 
must be controlled, as the vast system must have been 
originated, by One of infinite wisdom and power and 
goodness. In due course of time it was discovered 
that astronomy did not militate against Christianity, 
and the church not only ceased putting astronomers 
in prison, but learned that the acceptance of all truth, 
come from whatever source it may, is a Christian 
duty. And many of the most distinguished astron- 
omers have been no less earnest exemplars of the 
Christian system of religion than any monk who ever 
wore the pavements of a monastery and left the 
world no wiser or better than he found it. 

As it was with astronomy, so it has been even of 
late years with the science of geology. The era of 
imprisonment for heresy had indeed passed by when 
men began to construct a comprehensive science on 
the study of rocks ; but as their revelations became 
more extensive and more wonderful, it again appeared 
to many that here had arisen a formidable foe of Christ- 



44 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

(anity, and the new science was assailed accordingly. 
It has not turned out that these disputants were as 
wise as they were zealous and as they were undoubt- 
edly sincere. Though the sun never rises and never 
sets, we should be stupid indeed were we always, 
when speaking of his appearance on our horizon, or 
his disappearance therefrom, to state the fact in 
words of scientific accuracy. The world has never 
yet been slow enough justly to permit such waste oi 
time and words. Not only the almanac-makers, but 
the most celebrated astronomers persist in saying that 
the sun rises and the sun sets. And, properly under- 
stood, it is perfectly true though scientifically false. 
To all appearance and for all practical purposes to 
the inhabitants of earth the sun does rise and set, 
and when one so says, whether inspired or uninspired. 
one simply conveys the idea that' he intends to con- 
vey, and this is the province of language. As astron 
omy appeared to be utterly opposed by certain ex 
pressions in Scripture, but was found not to be, upor 
more liberal construction of the language, as well ari 
more philosophical, so geology appeared to be, in its 
apparent demonstration of the vast age of the world, 
and, later, of the great antiquity of man, hostile to the 
received canons of the church, end especially subvers- 
ive of the Mosaic account of creation and the generally 
received system of chronology. The conflicts thus aris- 
ing have dissipated many erroneous theological con- 
structions and dogmas, but they have in no manner 
affected the foundations of Christianity. There are 
many eminent geologists who are earnest Christians, 
and though Dr. Livingstone himself has done geology 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. . 45 

incalculable service he has done Christianity incalcula- 
bly more. It may well be doubted whether any sin- 
gle theologian of the age has conferred more valua- 
ble service upon Christianity than Hugh Miller, the 
great geologist of Scotland, whose scientific works 
are, perhaps, the most fascinating of any in the Eng- 
lish language. 

There can be, then, no well-grounded fear of sci- 
ence overturning Christianity. It is more likely 
thereby to be in the end not only more thoroughly 
and correctly understood, but more firmly established 
and more generally adopted. Even the inquiry which 
is now receiving so much attention from men of 
thought — that into the origin of man — need not be 
deemed as fraught with any real danger to the sys- 
tem which has given the world its present civilization. 
Were it possible to establish Mr. Darwin's theory of 
evolution — and that it is more than a theory cannot 
be claimed for it by its most devoted advocate — and 
establish man's origin in the ape, still would the act 
of his creation into man from ape be an act of infinite 
power and goodness. For the infinite power and 
goodness of the act consist in the creation, by some 
means, of a being of intellectual and moral attributes. 
The act of divine pow^ is in breathing into the nos- 
trils the breath of life, and causing the being to be- 
come a living soul. Even Mr. Darwin will not dis- 
pute that the ape was in the long ages evolved from 
dust, nor that, so far as science has sho'^.vi or probably 
ever can show, there is no being in th^. universe with 
capacity to evolve thought except only God, as shown 
in His manifold works, and man. 



46 Stanley's story ; or, 

Whatever may be the resuh, therefore, of the inter- 
estiag inquiries in commerce, religion, geography 
geology, ethnology which now are being more and 
more directed toward Africa with each passing year, 
we may quite safely conclude, judging from the re- 
sults of the past, that Christianity will come forth out 
of the conflicts that may arise, whether they be sci- 
entific or of other nature, with renewed beauty and 
power; with more liberal and enlightened views, 
doubtless, upon some questions which have been 
erroneously considered, but with greater influence on 
this account, and with brighter prospects of more 
speedily than might have been but for these cjnflicta 
extending the rule of her pure and beneficent mor- 
ality among all the nations and tribes of meiL 




CHAPTER III. 

THE RESULTS OF THE EXPLORATIONS IN AFRICA. 

Tae Result m Behalf of Science, Religion, and Humanity of the ExploratioBC 
-nd Missionary Labors of Dr. Livingstone and Others in Africa — Review 
of Recent Discoveries in Respect to the People and the Physical Nature 
of the African Continent — The Diamond Fields of South Africa — Bird's-Ey« 
View of that Division of the Worid — Its Capabilities and Its Wants- 
Christianity and Modem Journalism Dissipating Old Barbarisms, and 
Leading the Way to Triumphs of Civilization. 

It would be difficult to estimate the result present 
and sure to come, in behalf of science, religion, and 
humanity, of the explorations and missionary labors 
of Dr. Livingstone and others in Africa during a 
period which embraces but little more than a quarter 
of a century. The manner in which Livingstone 
conducted his missionary labors has already been 
pointed out, but more with reference to their connec- 
tion with peoples outside of Africa : with men of let- 
ters, of science, and of trade in the civilized world : 
than with reference to the natives themselves. Nev- 
ertheless, it is a fact that the Christian religion has 
nowhere in Africa been anything like so generally 
adopted, practiced, and honored by the natives as in 
the country of the Bakwains. And it was among the 
Bakwains that Dr. Livingstone performed his princi- 
pal missionary work. Among that people only did 
he establish a permanent missionary station. There 
he had his home in Africa : there his children were 

47 



48 Stanley's story; or, 

born. Unquestionably the labors of the Rev. Dr 
Moffat, Dr. Livingstone's father-in-law, were of the 
highest importance in some respects. The scene of 
his studies was at Kuruman, several hundred miles 
to the southward of Kolobeng where Livingstone 
was stationed. He translated the Scriptures into the 
Bechuana language, travelled and preached over a 
wide domain in South Africa, and accomplished vast 
good. But it was Livingstone who infused into- the 
spirit of Christian propagandism practical wisdom 
and the argument of present as well as future good. 
He is the Franklin of missionaries, having wonderful 
power in showing pagans that, even so far as their 
temporal affairs and material prosperity are concerned, 
the religion of Him of Nazareth is the best policy. 
Much has been accomplished at the " Gaboon Mis- 
sion*' as it has been called, on the east coast, but it 
may be said that the principal good is in the mitiga- 
tion of the woes of the slave trade, which here, with 
the aid of nations which keep cruisers off the coast, 
has received, perhaps, a mortal wound. Neverthe- 
less, the tribes of this coast are exceedingly depraved, 
drunken, and ignorant. They are universally idola- 
trous and given to disgusting superstitions and habits. 
Scarcely more than a hundred miles In the interior 
are tribes of cannibals, which are doubtless succeeded 
by others practicing the horrid orgies of man-eating 
across the continent to Tanganyika Lake. But with 
the great decrease in the slave trade has sprung up 
among all these people a wish to engage In legiti- 
mate commerce. With half the ideas of Christain 
civilization which have been instilled into the Bak- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 49 

wains of South Africa, these unhappy people would 
soon find ways and means to conduct a large trade in 
ebony, India-rubber, ivory, and other products of their 
country so much prized by commerce. Those who 
live on the coast have become somewhat skilful and 
daring in navigation, their little vessels, made of 
great trees hollowed out and pointed, making con- 
siderable coastwise voyages. Upon the arrival of a 
vessel on the coast, great numbers of these canoes, 
filled with natives, are constantly moving about from 
ship to shore, too often carrying off the miserable 
beings from the baracoons. This terrible trafific 
completely done with, they must perforce seek other 
means of trade ; and these their country happily 
affords in great abundance. 

The Makololo of central South Africa, so often 
mentioned in this volume, were greatly improved by 
the restless genius of the warrior-statesman Sebituane, 
whose remarkable career has been delineated in these 
pages. These people, possessing a couhtry of great 
beauty and fertility along the valley of one of the 
most magnificent rivers of the world ; possessing also 
vast herds of cattle and many villages and towns; 
and endued by nature with tractable dispositions and 
ambitious spirit, continue greatly to profit by the 
teachings and example of Dr. Livingstone. Related 
to the Bakwains and with them speaking the Bechu- 
ana language. Christian ideas are rapidly gaining ad- 
herents, so that it is but reasonable to expect that ere 
long, that vast extent of country from Cape Colony 
to Londa, between the eastern and western coast 
* shells" of South Africa will have come under the be- 



50 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

nignant and progressive influences of Christian civ 
ilization. 

The value of the results of Dr. Livingstone's explo 
rations to science can hardly be overestimated. Ge 
ography, geology, botany, natural history, ornithol- 
ogy, have all recived new facts of value by his labors, 
while the latest intelligence from him clearly points 
to his speedy success, should his life be spared, in the 
solution of that problem in geography which for 
many years has elicited the studies of the learned 
and the adventures of the adventurous. 

But Dr. Livingstone has not been alone in giving 
the world intelligence of the long unknown continent. 
In the interest of commerce, England sent an expe- 
dition to central Africa in 1850 under Captain Rich- 
ardson, with whom were associated Dr. Overweg and 
the celebrated Dr. Barth, upon the latter of whom the 
work of the mission devolved on account of the death 
of both of his colleagues. The result was published 
in a most elaborate work of which mention has been 
made in the early pages of this volume. Dr. Barth trav 
ersed the African Sahara from north to south and 
again from south to north, near the middle, passing 
through Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, Ghat, Tintel 
lust, the capital of Asben, Agades, and Katsena, 
whence on the journey out Dr. Barth proceeded to 
Kano, Messrs. Richardson and Overweg going to 
Lake Tsad. Dr. Barth remained in Africa about five 
years, exploring the country from east of Lake Tsad 
to Timbuctoo. All this vast country is inhabited by 
a remarkable people, or a variety of remarkable peo- 
ples, who are good horsemen, sustaining large armies, 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 5 1 

chiefly of cavalry, adroit robbers, cruel, vindictive, 
having the worst form of domestic slavery, but who 
number many millions of souls ; cultivate vast tracts 
of land, raising corn, rice, millet, tobacco, cotton, and 
other products; have many extensive towns and 
walled cities, carry on great operations in manufac- 
tures, trade, and mining ; and are almost constantly 
at war : for the different states are independent oi 
each other, each empire governed by its own sheik, the 
lesser sovereignties by sultans. The common religion 
of the people is that of Mahomet, but there are rem- 
nants of pagan tribes, some of which are even yet in- 
dependent, and wage deadly war with their cruel op- 
pressors. The country is well watered, and may be 
generally described as a vast plain, diversified only at 
wide distances by insulated mountains of no great 
height. In this expanse, the general name of which 
is Soudan, or Soodan (Berr es-Soodan, " Land of the 
Blacks"), the most celebrated city, perhaps, is Tim- 
buctoo, which, from remote antiquity, has been the 
meeting-place of many caravans and converging lines 
of traffic. Sokato, or Sukatu, was formerly a city oi 
50,000 inhabitants, but has of late years decreased in 
importance. It is noted for its excellent manufactures 
of leather and iron, and its general markets, which 
always bring together great numbers of people and a 
wonderful variety of articles for sale. Kano, the cap- 
ital of the province of Houssa, has a population of 
forty thousand souls. The city is surrounded by a 
wall of clay, thirty feet high, and more than fifteen 
miles in extent. Much of the enclosed space is occu- 
pied by gardens and cultivated fields. The cotton 



52 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

cloth woven and dyed at Kano is the chief article ol 
commerce. The fine cotton fabrics of the Timbuctoo 
market are really manufactured at Kano. Dyed 
sheep-skins, sandals, ivory, the kola nut are largely 
exported. Kuka, the capital of Bornu, is near Lake 
Tsad, but is a small city of inconsiderable importance. 
Vola, the capital of Adamwa, is larger than Kuka 
It was in this province that Dr. Barth discovered the 
Bcnue river, a navigable stream and the principal afflu- 
ent from the east of the Niger. There are many 
cities in this portion of Africa of far more importance 
than the capitals of Bornu and Adamwa. Polygamy 
is universally practiced, and there are probably more 
slaves than freemen throughout all the vast expanse 
between the equator and the Desert of Sahara, and 
Senegambia and Abyssinia. 

In 1856, Captain Burton, whose " Pilgrimage to El 
Medinah and Mecca" (which he made in the disguise 
of a dervish) had just made a sensation in the read- 
ing worla, explored, with the lamented Speke, a con- 
siderable portion of East Africa. The explorations 
of Grant and Speke in this portion of the continent 
were also of the greatest value. Thus was a knowl- 
edge of the expanse lying between Lake Nyassa, 
Tanganyika Lake, Victoria Nyanza and the Indian 
ocean made known to the world. The explorations 
of Sir Samuel Baker and others in search of the 
sources of the Nile are familiar to the intelligent 
public. At this moment there are at least two expe- 
ditions engaged in attempting to solve this interest- 
ing geographical problem, one, under the patronage 
of the Prince of Wales, the other under that of the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 53 

Khedive of Egypt. With this latter is a representa- 
tive of the same American journal whose Search 
Expedition under Mr. Stanley discovered the great 
discoverer on the shores of Tanganyika. 

The most interesting and valuable series of explor- 
ations from the west coast of Africa which have been 
made of late years were those by Paul B. Du Chaillu, 
an American traveller and student whose work has 
been freely quoted from in this volume. His explor- 
ations embraced some three degrees of latitude and 
six of longitude near the equator. He penetrated far 
into the country of the gorilla and the cannibal, and 
his researches in respect of the people, animals, veg- 
etation, and birds of this part of the continent are 
confessedly of great value to science. 

Thus, if we consider the known portions of Africa 
It the time Dr. Livingstone began his first expedition 
of discovery, and compare them with the known por- 
tions of Africa at the time of the finding of Living- 
stone by the " Herald" expedition, we shall see that 
nearly all South Africa and much of East Africa has 
been explored by Livingstone himself; that Baker 
Burton, Speke, Grant have added much to our knowl- 
edge of the supposed regions of the upper Nile and 
the ''lake country" of East Africa; that Richardson 
and Barth have informed us of the true nature of the 
Desert of Sahara, the latter adding a vast fund of in- 
formation in respect to north-central Africa; that 
Du Chaillu's explorations and direct information 
almost impinge upon the vast area, both upon the 
east and the south, explored by Dr. Livingstone 
The unexplored regions of Africa, therefore, are now 



54 STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

small in comparison of the regions explored and in 
regard to which trustworthy information has been 
gathered. Whereas, when Dr. Livingstone went to Af- 
rica, only the outer portions of the continent had been 
examined, the reoflons now unknown are a wide belt 
eastward of Lake Tsad ; a considerable expanse south 
of Abyssinia; portions of the Desert of Sahara, and of 
Kalahari ; and that expanse in equatorial Africa be- 
tween the recent explorations of Livingstone among 
the supposed sources of the Nile and the eastern 
limit of Du Challlu's journeys. It Is true that these 
still unexplored regions embrace the most interest- 
ing portion of the continent and extend over an area 
several times larger than that of France, but in com- 
parison of the portions of this great division of the 
earth which have now come under the view and the 
study of civilized man, they are but like a little cloud 
in a clear sky. 

Within the long explored regions of South Africa 
a most important discovery in respect to commerce 
has recendy been made. Reference can be had, of 
course, only to the discovery of the diamond fields of 
the Orange and Vaal rivers, some seven or eight 
hundred miles, by a traversable route, northeastward 
of Cape Town, but considerably nearer either Port 
Elizabeth in Cape Colony, or Port Natal on the east 
coast. Some twenty years ago England abandoned 
the tract of country now known as the Orange River 
Free State, and it was occupied by emigrant Boers, 
some of whom also proceeded still farther north and 
established the Trans- Vaal Republic-— a region over 
which Great Britain never had dominion. The Boers 




ill 



* 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 55 

are generally supposed to be descendants of the Dutch 
colonists, but by some they are believed to be de 
scended of certain warlike North Germans, whom the 
Dutch employed to guard their distant settlements, 
giving them lavish grants of lands in return for their 
services. This latter opinion would seem to be sub- 
stantiated by the fierce and warlike nature of the 
present race of Boers. The diamond fields com- 
mence near the junction of the Orange and Vaal 
rivers, and extend indefinitely up both those streams. 
The diamond region is described as " a desert country 
of bare rock and sand, far from the upland pastoral 
districts" where the Boers successfully conduct agri- 
cultural pursuits. The fields are reached by a jour- 
ney of some eight hundred miles from Cape Town. 
The distance from Port Elizabeth is about five hun- 
dred miles; that from Port Natal about four hundred 
and fifty. By the Port Elizabeth route, the traveller 
passes over the Zumberg mountains, and over the 
Drakensberg range, should he start from Port Natal. 
By either route, the scenery is described as magnifi- 
cent and calculated to put the traveller at once In love 
with the country. But the region between Port Na- 
tal and the diamond fields Is more wild and desolate 
than that on either of the other routes, and great suf- 
fering is often experienced by the way. 

The first South African diamond Is said to have 
been found in March, 1867. The fortunate person 
was a Dutch farmer named Schalk Van Niekerk, who 
was struck with the appearance of a stone with which 
some children were playing. It turned out to be a 
genuine diamond, and was purchased by Sir Fhllip 



56 Stanley's story; or, 

Wodehouse, then governor of the Colony, for $2,5oa 
In a short time the governor purchased several othei 
fine and valuable stones. In May, 1869, the niagnifi- 
cent diamond "Star of South Africa" was discovered 
by a man named Swatbooy, near Sandfontein, on the 
Orange river. This was a diamond of eighty-three 
and a-half carats and was purchased for $56,500. Be- 
ing cut, it produced a fine gem of forty-six and a-half 
carats, valued at $100,000. The finder of this dia- 
mond sold it for 500 head of sheep, 10 head of cattle, 
and a horse. In a single year since their discovery 
these fields have yielded more than five stones above 
forty carats. Professor Tennant thinks we shall have 
diamonds from South Africa exceeding the. famous 
Koh-i-noor in size and equaling it in beauty when 
cut and polished. The Sultan of Matan, of the 
island of Borneo, has a diamond of the first water, 
weighing 367 carats, and worth at least $3,500,000. 
The Orloff diamond, belonging to the Czar of Russia, 
weighs 195 carats, but is worth only about $500,000 
on account of being a little off color. It is not too 
credulous to believe that the diamond fields of South 
Africa may produce stones equal to these, and which 
will throw the fabulous " Moonstone," about which 
Wilkie Collins has written one of his most fascinating 
stories, completely in the shade. 

These diamond fields have already been visited by 
great numbers of explorers, many of whom have been 
exceedingly lucky, while others had better remained 
at home. Astonishingly few scenes of lawlessness 
and violence have been witnessed, a fact which is 
owing to the peaceful nature of the Africans who do 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 57 

the most of the digging. The result of the discovery 
of this extraordinary diamond region was greatly to 
lower the price of rough diamonds for a season. It 
is not believed that the price will be permanently 
affected. Only about one tenth of the African dia- 
monds are of the first water. The ordinary trade in 
diamonds had been about $800,000 a month — $400,- 
000 from the mines of South America and India, 
and $400,000 from private parties. The increase 
from the South African fields has not yet been 
$100,000 a month, or anything like it on the average. 
The introduction of machinery and of capital to direct 
and control the workings, will doubtless add largely 
to the yield of these precious stones. Rubies are 
also found here in large numbers, but they are gen- 
erally small. The probability of the discovery of 
gold also is very great. 

Reflecting upon all these recent explorations and 
discoveries in Africa, how different would be a bird's 
eye view of that continent now from what it was 
when Dr, Livingstone first went ashore at Cape 
Town ! The extreme southern portion of the conti- 
nent is under the dominion of Great Britain. On 
the east and northeast are Natal and the Boer re- 
publics of Orange River and Trans-Vaal. Here, of 
course, we find a people not unlike the peasantry o\ 
Europe, with towns and cities and farms and manu- 
factures and commerce. The political institutions 
are liberal, and popular education supported by the 
state, is becoming general. The original inhabitants 
of this region were the Hottentots, a race bearing more 



58 Stanley's story; or, 

resemblance to the Mongols than to the negroes 
having broad foreheads, high cheek bones, oblique 
eyes, thin beards, and a yellow complexion. They 
are of a docile disposition, and quick intellectual 
perception. They were possessed of vast herds of 
cattle and large flocks of sheep, but were enslaved 
by the Dutch. Emancipated in 1833 by England, 
they are still found all over this region — still enslaved 
by the Boers in their so-called republics — and in 
small bodies here and there to a great distance in the 
interior. The Caffres, who inhabit the eastern por- 
tion of South Africa north of the British possessions, 
and form a large proportion of the population of the 
northern part of Cape Colony, are described by Liv- 
ingstone as " tall, muscular, and well made ; they are 
shrewd, energetic, and brave ; altogether they merit 
the character given them by military authorities of 
being magnificent savages ! Their splendid physical 
development and form of skull show that, but for the 
black skin and woolly hair, they would take rank 
among the foremost Europeans." Near the east 
coast of Africa the Caffres are brown or copper-col 
ored. Their government is patriarchal, a petty chief 
presiding over each kraal or village, who is tributary 
to a higher chief, and these higher chiefs owe allegi- 
ance to the great chief, with whom they form the 
National Council. They live by hunting and raising 
cattle. Their women attend to the agriculture. 
They have no notion of a Supreme Being, but are 
exceedingly superstitious in respect to witches, spir- 
its, and the shades of their ancestors. The mission- 
ary labors of more than forty years have made no 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 59 

perceptible impression upon this stalwart race except 
those who live under the British Colonial govern- 
ment, and these have only been partially won over 
to civilization. Caffre women are described as su- 
perior in beauty to the other native races of South 
Africa. Then, and farther to the left, still looking 
northward, we have the Bushmen, who are described 
by Livingstone as true nomads. Then we come 
to the Griquas, an independent people north of the 
Orange river. By Griquas is meant any mixed race 
sprung from natives and Europeans. These are 
of Dutch extraction through association with Hotten- 
tot and Bushwomen. Many of these have adopted 
Christianity. The human inhabitants of the Kala- 
hari Desert are Bushmen and Bakalahari, the former 
supposed to be the aborigines of Southern Africa, 
the latter the remnants of the first emigration of 
Bakwalns. Both of these singular people are pos- 
sessed of an Intense love of liberty, but the Bushmen 
live almost exclusively on wild animals, while the 
Bakalahari have an irrepressible love of flocks of do- 
mestic animals. They procure a precarious exisfencc 
over the dry expanse of Kalahari. East of the Des 
ert are the Bakwalns, among whom Moffat and Liv 
ingstone labored. These, numbering many different: 
tribes. Inhabit a large portion of Southern Africa 
and by their migrations under Sebltuane, have for 
a number of years also held a vast territory on the 
Chobe and Zambesi rivers, north of Lake Ngami. 
Many of the Southern tribes have embraced Chris- 
tianity and all are noted for intelligence and the de- 
sire of progress. Between the Southern Bechuanas 



6o Stanley's story; or, 

and their relatives the Makololo are the Bamangwato 
and the Bayeiye, the latter " the Quakers of Africa," 
who do not believe in fighting. The former are suf- 
ficiently savage and indolent. They live round 
about Lake Ngami. To the westward of Kalahari 
and as far northward as the country under Por- 
tuguese dominion we observe a region possessing 
many fertile tracts. A wide expanse is called Nam- 
aqua Land, and is sparsely inhabited by Hotten- 
tots among whom live a few Dutch. Northward of 
these are the Damaras, whose domains extend far 
into the interior, but of whom little is known. Far 
up the east coast extends the country of Mozambique, 
long known to geography. Near the middle of this 
country the waters of the Zambesi empty into the 
Indian ocean. Far up this stream we find many 
tribes of ignorant men, all polygamous, but none, un- 
til we reach the 'watershed of central South Africa, 
devoted to disgusting fetiches. There, where the 
country is for a vast distance an immense flat, with a 
river, part of whose sluggish waters seek outlet in the 
Atlantic and part in the Indian ocean, we see negroes 
of the most savage nature and the most degrading 
superstitions. And as we cast our vision westward 
toward the Portuguese colony of Angola, we find them 
becoming more and more degraded, through the im- 
mense territory of the Balonda, until we reach the 
magnificent valley of the Quango, and begin to per- 
ceive the beneficent effects of civilization, even though 
its representatives have not been of the best. We 
shall look in vain over the whole expanse of Lower 
Guinea for notable prospects cheering to the cause of 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 6l 

man's advancement. Then extending our vision 
northward and eastward over what may for conveni- 
ence sake be called the equatorial region of Africa, 
we shall observe great lakes and rivers on the east, 
the lakes scarcely less great in surface extent than 
those of interior North America, while at the west 
we perceive extensive rivers, and Immense forests. 
Here the nobler wild animals do not live, but repul- 
sive apes and cannibals possess the gloomy shade of 
the vast wilderness. Near the eastern portion of this 
expanse the great explorer of Africa is at this time 
engaged in traversing that now most interesting por- 
tion of the globe whence spring the sources of the 
Nile. Still farther north, and extending nearly across 
the continent, we see an immense territory crowded 
with a commercial, trading people, whose cities have 
been noted for ages through the reports of caravans 
which have brought their goods and gold across the 
great desert to the Mediterranean sea. On the right 
of the desert we find Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt. 
The desert itself is seen to have many oases, stately 
mountains, and in places a growth of singular trees. 
Its caravans are sometimes submerged by the terrible 
simoon ; but the robbers of the desert are more cruel 
and destructive than the winds and sands. On the 
noith of Sahara we see the countries bordering on 
the Mediterranean, where in ancient times the great 
rival of Rome exercised supreme authority, which 
was doubtless wrested from Carthage in a calamity 
to mankind. To the westward of this famous seat of 
ancient empire, the French now have a numerous and 
prosperous colony. Still farther westward and look 



62 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Ing out upon the pillars of Hercules, live the rem- 
nants of that singular people who once possessed a 
large part of Spain, and whose melancholy fate has 
been rendered wonderfully interesting to the intelli- 
gent of all lands by the great and tender genius of 
our American Irving. The descendants of the old 
possessors of Granada, the builders of the Alhambra, 
may now be found in northwestern Africa, and pen- 
etrating deeply into the regions of the Desert, with 
little to suggest the ancient taste, and culture, and 
warlike prowess. With the exception of Liberia, and 
the English, Portuguese, Dutch, and French colonies, 
and of late some of the Backwains who have become 
Christianized, the people of whom we are taking this 
rapid view are devoted to polygamy. As it exists 
throughout nearly the whole of the vast continent it 
is both a social and a political institution. Of all 
these people, perhaps those only who are actually 
progressive are the Bakwains, under Sechele, the Ma- 
kololo, under Sekeletu, successor to the greatest ot 
South African chieftains, Sebituane, some of the col- 
onists of extreme South Africa, and a province or two 
of central West Africa. 

Confining our view now to the physical aspect oj 
Africa, we perceive that the four great rivers are the 
Nile, the Zambesi, the Quango, or Congo, and the 
Niger. The Orange river of the south is of less mag 
nitude, as is the Senegal of the west. Of these, the 
Nile is the greatest and most interesting, the most 
interesting river, perhaps, of the world. The Niger 
drains much of western and central Africa, and with 
its affluents forms a system of drainage for an in 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 63 

mense empire. The Quango is the principal river of 
central South Africa, but between it and the Niger 
are the Gaboon and the Fernand Vas with their 
many affluents. The Zambesi is seen to drain a re- 
gion many times larger than Great Britain. The 
Orange with its affluents is at least equal to the 
Ohio in the United States. All these rivers, with 
the exception of the Nile, force their way through 
mountains which reach in almost unbroken range 
around the continent from Abyssinia southwestward 
to Cape Colony, then northwestward to Senegambia, 
whence they shoot off in broken fragments over the 
Desert of Sahara. 

The northern half of Africa is chiefly Mohamme- 
dan, the southern half chiefly pagan. In the north 
we have sheikhs, khedives, sultans, harems, intrigues, 
treachery, vindictivenes, and tortures. In the south 
we have man-eating, superstitions, fetiches, degrada- 
tion, but, unquestionably as I think, very much less 
of man*s inhumanity to man. North and south, ex- 
cept where the English have control, domestic slavery 
exists in its most cruel forms, but nowhere in the 
world has it ever existed, perhaps, in such monstrous 
shape of iniquity as in central Africa under the rule 
of Islamism. Dr. Barth accompanied the sheikh ot 
Bornoo on a predatory (slave-catching) expedition 
into the Musgu country on one occasion. He thus 
relates the principal business of a single day: 

" The village we had just reached was named Ka- 
kala, and is one of the most considerable places in 
the Musgu country. A large number of slaves had 
been caught this day, and in the course of the eve- 



64 Stanley's story; or, 

ning, after some skirmishing, in which three Borneo 
horsemen were killed, a great many more were brought 
in ; altogether they were said to have taken one thou- 
sand, and there were certainly not less than five hun- 
dred. To our utmost horror, not less than one 
hundred and seventy full-grown men were merci- 
lessly slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part of 
them being allowed to bleed to death, a leg having 
been severed from the body." 

The number of " slaves" (that is, free persons cap- 
tured) on this expedition was about 4,000, of whom 
nearly 1,000, being full-grown men, were disposed of 
in the horrible manner above described. 

— Those who have read the preceding pages can 
hardly help arriving at the conclusion that the capabil- 
ities and the wants of Africa are very great. Leaving 
out those portions of the continent which were known 
when Dr. Livingstone first reached South Africa, we 
find that there have since been discovered lakes, 
rivers, mountains, regions abounding in precious 
stones and metals, vast fertile plains, forests rich in 
valuable trees and vines, animals producing rare arti- 
cles of commerce, peoples rude indeed and degraded 
but neither cruel by nature, vindictive, nor revenge- 
ful. Many of them are magnificent specimens oi 
mankind, so far as physical nature is concerned, while 
a great majority of them are far above that which is 
too generally considered the typical African. They 
are by no means wanting in intellectual powers ; and 
tneir almost universal love of children must be re- 
garded as a most admirable and redeeming trait 
Even the cannibals of the equatorial regions are un- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 65 

questionably less cruel and infinitely less treacherous 
than the Mohammedans of north Central Africa, 
while the numerous tribes of Bakwains and Mako- 
lolo are for the most part by nature gentlemen ; 
brave, magnanimous, and reasonable. The Bakala- 
hari are a pastoral people; and those who are fond 
of both children and flocks cannot be irreclaimably 
depraved. Over a large part of South Africa, idola- 
try is unknown ; and skepticism is a much less pow- 
erful antagonist of Christian civilization than fetiches. 

These people have many navigable rivers, vast ex- 
tents of arable lands, large numbers of domestic ani- 
mals, and some of them are wonderfully skilful in the 
manufacture of certain fabrics and tools. Perhaps it 
is hardly too much to say that the Fans (cannibals) 
of equatorial Africa are the best blacksmiths in the 
world. 

There can be little doubt that many of these peo- 
ple would have adopted Christian civilization before 
this time but for polygamy. As has been said a mo- 
ment ago this is both a social and political institution. 
The more wives a chief has the more fathers-in-law, 
the more friends, and consequently the more influ- 
ence. We have seen how this long kept the chief 
Sechele from espousing Christianity. It appeared to 
his generous nature like a cruelty to return his super- 
numerary " wives." It is difficult to see how any gen- 
eral progress can be made toward the adoption of 
Christian civilization by these people until this insli^ 
tution shall have been destroyed. 

The abolition of domestic slavery is one of the 
greatest wants of the continent. In no part of pagan 



66 Stanley's story; ok, 

Africa is this inhuman system upheld by such bar 
barous practices as in many large portions under the 
sway, of Islamism. In pagan Africa the captives of 
war are made slaves, but the adult males are not 
mangled and slain. Throughout a great extent of 
Mohammedan Africa the system of slavery is upheld 
by nameless atrocities in gratification of the terrible 
cruelty and scarcely less terrible lust of the most 
cruel and lustful people. The legend of Legree in 
Mrs. Stowe's celebrated novel of " Uncle Tom's Cab- 
in" is a pleasant fable in comparison of many acts 
pertaining to African domestic slavery of which 
truthful accounts might be given. It might appeal 
that time is necessary to prepare a people so cruel 
for the reception of Christian civilization. The Boers 
of South Africa are exceedingly hard task-masters 
with their slaves, compelling them to do a great deal 
of hard labor and drudgery, but they have not been 
charged with blood-thirstiness. 

This wide-spread system of domestic slavery is, of 
course, an important ally of the foreign slave trade 
but the slave trade is in some respects a wrong and 
unutterable woe of itself. There is a certain introna- 
tional slave trade, if we may so speak, in Africa 
carried on between tribes which are independent of 
each other. The importance of a chief is often esti- 
mated by the number of his slaves and wives. Now 
that the recent explorations of white men have made 
intercourse between tribes of more frequent occur- 
rence than formerly, a rude diplomacy has sprung 
up, which is chiefly exercised in matters pertaining 
^o slaves and the purchase of wives. A chief 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 6^ 

Strengthens himself at home by marrying as many of 
the daughters of his "head men" as he can, and among 
other tribes by the same course among them. A 
large number of slaves adds to the consideration in 
which he is held at home and abroad. Thus polyg- 
amy, domestic slavery, and the foreign slave trade 
are the great obstacles which stand in the way of 
civilizing the continent of the black man. And of 
these the greatest obstacle is the foreign slave trade. 
This, not only because of its own cruelty, fearful 
wrongfuln^iss, and hideous practices, but because it 
gives the black man a fairly unanswerable practical 
argument against civilization. Dr. Livingstone ex- 
pressly tells us, in letters which we have quoted, that 
the practices of the slave-traders are more horribie 
and cruel than even those of the man-eating Man- 
yema. Is it to be expected that the natives of Africa 
will adopt a system which, so far as they see, is more 
cruel than the most horrible customs of their most 
degraded tribes? Those Africans only who have to 
any considerable extent adopted Christain civilization 
live at the greatest distance from the scenes of the 
foreign slave trade. 

The first great want of Africa, therefore, is the 
suppression of the slave trade. This has been to 
great extent accomplished on the West Coast. It 
has not been accomplished on the East Coast because 
of the neglect of the British government. Not long 
since Zanzibar was visited by a terrible hurricane, 
whose destructive fury laid waste its shipping, its 
houses, and scattered death and desolation over a 
wide expanse. The affliction was very great, and 



6S Stanley's story; or, 

grievous to be borne. The slave trade of Zanzibar is 
almost infinitely more cruel than the remorseless ele- 
ments. Its speedy suppression is demanded by the 
united cries of Christianity and humanity. It is the 
undoubted duty of the government of Great Britain 
to heed this demand, and put an end to the woes 
which exist through the cupidity of British sub- 
jects and the inefficiency of British officials at Zan- 
zibar. 

The other great wants of Africa are the abolition 
of domestic slavery and the destruction of the system 
of polygamy. To accomplish these great objects will 
be no easy achievement, nor one, it is believed, which 
can be speedily brought about. It certainly can be 
done the more easily and the more speedily after the 
suppression of the foreign slave trade. Until that be 
done, it is simply impossible. That having first been 
brought about, the national characteristic of all Afri- 
can peoples will be found, it is confidently believed, to 
form an element of vast power in bringing the conti- 
nent under the sway of civilization. That characteris- 
tic is the love of trade. It is another of the singular 
anomalies of this division of the world, that while it 
is, upon the whole, the least commercial of all, the 
people are natural traders. They are universally 
fond of barter. This may be called the African idio- 
syncrasy. Taking advantage of it, with his inculca- 
tions of religious truth, Dr. Livingstone's labors at 
the time and afterwards were crowned with magnifi- 
cent success. Those of his co-laborers who have suc- 
ceeded have pursued the same plan. Thus through- 
out a vast expanse have slavery and polygamy passed 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 69 

away, and the institutions of Christian civilization 
been adopted in their stead by a people naturally in- 
telligent, progressive, and brave. 

Christianity and modern journalism ought, there- 
fore, to unite in urging commerce to clasp hands with 
religion for the purpose of making a common trium[)h 
for trade and civilization over the vast continent 
much of which has so long sat In darkness. There, 
surely, are the foundations upon which a mighty 
commerce may be built ; there, beyond question, is a 
vast field in which the labors of Christian propagan- 
dists have much to engage them, and much to en- 
courage great zeal and self-denial. Journalism and 
Christianity thus succeeding in making a firm and 
earnest ally of Commerce, cannot help leading the 
way, in the good time of Heaven's providence, to 
most gratifying triumphs of civilization ; so that the 
gloom and misery of centuries shall be dispelled, and 
even Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto 
God. -^^~rw^^- 







CHAPTER IV. 

LIVINGSTONE'S SECOND (AND LAST) EXPEDITION TO AFRICA. 

Again leaves England, March, 1858 — Resigning his position as Missionary fol 
the London Society, he is appointed by the British Government Consul at Kili- 
mane — After a brief exploration along the Zambesi, he again visits England — 
Sails on his Final Expedition August 14th, 1865, and proceeds by way of Bom- 
bay to Zanzibar — Report of his Murder on the shores of Nyassa. 

Among great men who have had much to do in 
directing the destinies of nations or any considerable 
number of mankind, there have been two kinds — one 
class, who supposed they controlled events and by 
imperial will and power mastered circumstances and 
the course of Providence ; the other, composed of 
those who have modestly imagined they were but in- 
struments in the hands of a Superior Power through 
whom some of his beneficent designs were to be ac- 
complished. Among the former was Napoleon Bo- 
naparte, who probably thought that in many particu- 
lars God was entitled to high respect, but that in the 
general conduct of military campaigns, He could not be 
compared with the French Emperor. It is historically 
true that the men of this class have generally inflict- 
ed great evils upon mankind. Of the other class of 
great men, David Livingstone is a conspicuous ex- 
ample ; and the one thing of which he is the most 
unaffectedly ignorant is his own genius. " If the 
reader remembers," he modestly remarks near the 
close of his work, "the way in which I was led, while 
teaching the Bakwains, to commence exploration, he 
will, I think, recognize the hand of Providence." 
And he goes on to show how, previously to this, Se- 

70 




i!lllillllll«'''!i;lMfalf;» 




THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 71 

bituane had gone north and from a country ^arger 
than France expelled hordes of bloody savage 5, and 
occupied their country with a people speaking the 
language of the Bakwains. Then again he wis sin- 
gularly turned toward the west instead of the east 
coast of Africa, it thus happening that when he re- 
turned upon his great expedition across the cor tinent, 
the country was at peace and his life saved. Mean- 
time, Sechele himself at Kolobeng had be< ame a 
missionary to his own people and they were becom- 
ing civilized. " I think," he concludes, "that I see the 
operation of the unseen hand in all this, and I hum- 
bly hope that it will still guide me to do goc d in my 
day and generation in Africa." 

But this explorer was withal eminently practical. 
He wanted British merchants as well as English mis- 
sionaries to go to Africa, and thinking that philan- 
thropy and profit were equally interested, he believed 
that the explorations he had alrep.dy made fully jus- 
tified the opinion that still further discoveries might 
completely demonstrate the fact that Africa was not 
only a great missionary field but might become o^ 
the greatest value in the commercial world through 
the production especially of cotton and sugar. " I 
propose," he says, " to spend some more years of la- 
bor, and shall be thankful if I see the system fairly 
begun in an open pathway which will eventually ben- 
efit both Africa and England." 

From all which it is clear that the second expe- 
dition of Dr. Livingstone to Africa, and which had 
not at that time been concluded, was the result of 
a deliberate opinion that, with the blessing of heaven, 



72 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

fie might be able to accomplish that which should 
result in great good to Africa and at the same time 
help to increase the trade and commerce of his own 
country. Impelled by such worthy and unselfish mo- 
tives, he again left England in March, 1858, and 
sailed for Kilimane. He had resigned his position 
as missionary for the London Society, but the British 
government had appointed him consul at Kilimane, 
with the understanding that he was not on this ac- 
count to give up his character of explorer. On the 
contrary, he was supplied with a small vessel, and ac- 
companied by a number of scientific associates, made 
a number of exploring expeditions by which his ideas 
in respect to the production of cotton and sugar and 
the overthrow of the slave traffic were greatly encour- 
aged, and the conclusion reached that it would not 
be long before the opening of commercial intercourse 
between European nations and the tribes of South 
Africa. It was afterwards discovered by Mr. Young, 
in charge of an English expedition of search, which 
proceeded far up the Zambesi river, that the memory 
of Dr. Livingstone was highly revered, and his in- 
fluence manifested in the moral improvement of the 
people and the advancement of their material inter- 
ests. Subsequently, Dr. Livingstone made an ex- 
pedition in a large region of country drained by the 
river Rovuma, which, along the east coast of Africa 
is a sort of boundary between Mohammedan and 
Portuguese authority. For this expedition a steamer 
was provided, but it was found to be of too great 
draft of water to be of much service. Dr. Living- 
stone, therefore, with the object of accomplishing the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. "J^i 

great design of his second voyage to Africa, returned 
to England, having re-explored a large portion of 
country along the Zambesi and visited for the first 
time the tribes of a large extent of country several 
hundred miles north of the Zambesi in its eastward 
course. This return to England was, however, but a 
part of the expedition upon which he had started in 
1858, or rather an episode in it, without which the 
original object — the discovery of the principal water- 
shed of the African continent, including the sources 
of the Nile — would not have been accomplished. 
Whilst, therefore. Dr. Livingstone has made three 
voyages from England to Africa, it will be more con- 
venient to group his series of explorations under the 
general heading of two great expeditions — the first 
under the auspices of the London Missionary So- 
ciety, the second under those of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society, with special assistance from the 
British government. 

For the completion of the series of explorations 
of this expedition, upon which the explorer was then 
still engaged, he left England, August 14th, 1865, ac- 
companied by his daughter as far as Paris. Thence 
he proceeded to Bombay, and provided himself with 
materiel and men for the work before him. From 
Bombay he proceeded to Zanzibar, and on March 
28th, 1866, left that island accompanied by two boys 
— Chanma and Wakotasie — a number of Sepoys 
several men from Johanna Island, and some Suahili 
from a school at Bombay, and having reached the 
main land proceeded to the interior by the river 
Rovuma. As he proceeded he from time to time sent 



74 Stanley's story; or, " 

back accounts of his progress and the interesting 
incidents of his explorations. But late in this year 
the leader of the Johanna men arrived at Zanzibar 
with a story that Dr. Livingstone had been murdered 
on the shores of Lake Nyassa by a band of Mazitiis, 
The tale had such an air of truth that no one doubted 
it. Moosa's story being fully credited, the world quite 
generally gave up Dr. Livingstone as lost. Dr. G, 
Edward Seward, resident agent of the English gov- 
ernment at Zanzibar, condensed Moosa's information 
into a dispatch to Lord Stanley, Secretary of State 
for Foreign Affairs, of which the following is the 
principal portion : 

''Zanzibar, Dec. lo, 1866. 

"My Lord — I send you the saddest news. Dr. 
Livingstone, in his despatch from Ngomano, informed 
your Lordship that he stood ' on the threshold of the 
unexplored.' Yet, as if that which should betide him 
had already thrown its shadow he added : — * It is but 
to say little of the future.' 

" My Lord, if the report of some fugitives from his 
party be true, this brave and good man has * crossed 
the thresliold of the unexplored' — he has confronted 
the future and will never return. He was slain, so it 
is alleged, during a sudden and unprovoked encoun- 
ter with those very Zulus of whom he says in his 
despatch, that they had laid waste the country round 
about him and had ' swept away the food from above 
and in the ground.' With an escort reduced to twenty 
by desertion, death and dismissals, he had traversed, 
as I believe, that terra incognita between the conflu- 
ence af the Loende and Rovuma rivers, at Nyomano, 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 75 

and the eastern or northeastern littoral of Lake 
Nyassa ; had crossed the lake at some point as yet 
unascertained; had reached a station named Kom- 
poonda or Mapoonda, on its western, probably its 
northwestern, shore, and was pushing west or north- 
west, into dangerous ground, when between Marenga 
and Mukliosowe a band of implacable savages stopped 
the way, a mixed horde of Zulus, or Mafilte and 
Nyassa folk. The Nyassa folk were armed with bow 
and arrow, the Zulus with the traditional shield, broad 
bladed spears, and axes. With Livingstone there 
were nine or ten muskets ; his Johanna men were 
resting^ with their loads far in the rear. 

" The Mafilte instantly came on to fight ; there was 
no parley, no avoidance of the combat ; they came on 
with a rush, with war cries and rattling on their shields 
their spears. As Livingstone and his party raised 
their pieces their onset was for a moment checked, 
but only for a moment. Livingstone fired and two 
Zulus were shot dead (his boys fired too but their 
fire was harmless) ; he was in the act of reloading 
when three Mafilte leaped upon him through the 
smoke. There was no resistance — there could be 
none — and one cruel axe cut from behind him put 
him out of life. He fell, and when he fell his terror 
stricken escort fled, hunted by the Mafilte. One at 
least of the fugitives escaped; and he, the eye-wit- 
ness, it is who tells the tale — Ali Moosa, chief of his 
escort of porters. 

" The party had left the western shores of Nyassa 
about ^ive days. They had started from Kompoonda, 
on the lake's borders (they left the havildar of Sepoys 



76 Stanley's story ^, or, 

there dying of dysentery ; Livingstone had dismissed 
the other Sepoys of the Bombay Twenty-first at Ma- 
taka), and had rested at Marenga, where Livingstone 
was cautioned not to advance. The next station was 
Mahlivoora ; they were traversing a flat country, 
broken by small hills, and abundantly wooded. 

" Indeed, the scene of the tragedy so soon to be 
consumated would appear to have been an open for- 
est glade. Livingstone, as usual, led the way, his 
nine or ten unpractised musketeers at his heels. Ali 
Moosa had nearly come up with them, having left 
his own Johanna men resting with their loads far in 
the rear. Suddenly he heard Livingstone warn the 
boys that the Ma-zitus were coming. The boys in 
turn beckoned Moosa to press forward. Moosa saw 
the crowd here and there between the trees. 

" He had just gained the party and sunk down be- 
hind a tree to deliver his own fire when his leader 
fell. Moosa fled for his life along the path he had 
come. Meeting his Johanna men, who threw down 
their loads and in a body really passed Moosa, his es- 
cape and that of his party verges on the marvelous. 
However, at sunset, they, in great fear, left their for- 
est refuge, and got back to the place where they 
hoped to find their baggage. It was gone, and then 
with increasing dread they crept to where the slain 
traveler lay. 

" Near him, in front, lay the grim Zulus who were 
killed under his sure aim ; here and there lay scat- 
tered some four dead fugitives of the expedition 
That one blow had killed him outright, he had no 
Other wound but thi^ terrible gash ; it must bav^ 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. ']'] 

gone, from their description, through the neck and 
spine up to the throat in front, and it had nearly de- 
capitated him. Death came mercifully in its instant 
suddenness, for David Livingstone was ever ready. 

** They found him stripped of his upper clothing, 
the Ma-zitus had respected him when dead. They 
dug with some stakes a shallow grave and hid from 
the starlight the stricken temple of a grand spirit — 
the body of an apostle, whose martyrdom should 
make sacred the shores of that sea which his labors 
made known to us, and which now, baptized with his 
life's blood, men should henceforth know as ' Lake 
Livingstone.'" 

Dr. Seward added the following postscript to his 
despatch to the foreign office: 

" The date of Dr. Livingstone's death is left as 
much to conjecture as the place of his grave. All 
that we certainly know is that he was at Nyomano 
on the 1 8th of May last; that he proceeded to Mat- 
aka, whence he sent a despatch to this Consulate. 
From Mataka he is said to have made for and struck 
Nyassa, which he crossed ; but where, or where Mat- 
aka is, cannot be ascertained. The runaway Reuben, 
with the Sepoys, states that Livingstone left Mataka 
a few days before they set out on their return jour- 
ney to Zanzibar. They were one month and twenty 
days on the road to Keelwa, which they reached 
during the latter days of September. It may be in- 
ferred from this that Livingstone left Mataka about 
the middle of last July. The Johanna men named 
six weeks as the probable time of their return jour- 
ney from Mapoonda to Keelwa with the slave cara- 



78 STANLEY^S STORY; OR, 

van. The fight with the Zulus took place sixteen 
days before they set out. They reached Keelwa in 
November, Zanzibar the 6th of December. Roughly 
then, we may conjecture the death of their leader to 
have happened during September. The statements 
of our informants as to time, distance, and direction 
are distressingly vague and untrustworthy." 

The publication of this despatch at once created 
a profound sensation throughout the civilized world. 
There being no apparent reason to doubt the truth- 
fulness of the story, it was quite universally accepted, 
and most men lamented the death of the great ex- 
plorer with unfeigned sadness. The obituary notices 
which appeared in the public journals and proceed- 
ings of many learned bodies demonstrated the fame 
of Dr. Livingstone in a manner which will surely be 
exquisitely agreeable to him when he shall read the 
eulogiums, as, it is to be hoped, he may soon do. Dr 
Kirk, of Zanzibar, who had, in former years, accom- 
panied Dr. Livingstone in some of his explorations, 
gave the man Moosa a long and careful examination 
and cross-examination, and the longer he proceeded 
the more terrible the facts connected with Dr. Liv- 
ingstone's death appeared. A letter from him, gen- 
erally published and quoted by all journals, seemed 
to leave the painful reports fully and abundantly con- 
firmed. The world's sorrow, therefore, expressed in 
every proper way, was, to all appearance, entirely 
reasonable. 

Nevertheless, there were those who did not put 
their trust in Moosa's story. Among these was Sir 
Roderick Murchison, whose reputation for sagacity 




ZULU WARRIOR. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 79 

in England was very high. So early as 1844, Sir 
Roderick had announced, from the examination of 
certain rocks brought to him for study, the existence 
of gold in Australia, and had vainly endeavored to 
enlist the aid of government in behalf of practically 
testing the question. We have seen that he cor- 
rectly decyphered the general geological formation 
of central South Africa before the practical discovery 
of the fact by Livingstone. By these and other 
things of like nature, Sir Roderick had acquired the 
reputation of a prophet He could give no special 
reason for his opinion, but he did not believe Moo- 
sa's story of Livingstone's death, and the fact of his' 
want of faith in it made many suppose there might 
be ground for doubt after all. Sir Roderick was sus- 
tained in his doubts by Mr. E. D. Young, an African 
traveler of considerable experience who came for- 
ward and said that Ali Moosa belonged to a treacher- 
ous race. Suppose he had betrayed Dr. Livingstone, 
how else than by a cunningly-devised story of his 
death could he prevail upon the British consul to pay 
him. Here, at least, was a motive for the story, and 
it soon had many to believe in it The consequence 
was a variety of conflicting reports and conflicting 
opinions, in the midst of which the Royal Geographi- 
cal Society organized a search expedition and placed 
it under the charge of Mr. Young. 

On the 8th of August, 1867, the little steel boat 
** Search," Mr. Young in command, was pointed up 
the Zambesi river, under the most explicit and com- 
prehensive instructions from the Geographical So- 
ciety. At Shupanga, the grave of Mrs. Livingstone 



8o STANLEYS story; or, 

was visited, and such attention given it as was re- 
quired. On the 4th of September, Mr. Young heard 
of a white man having been seen on Lake Pama- 
lombi, which is far south of Lake Nyassa, the scene 
of the reported death. Young proceeded thither 
and became convinced that the white man was Liv- 
ingstone. Continuing the search, he found that his 
views were from day to day confirmed by the reports 
of natives and articles which the explorer had left 
with thepi subsequent to the time of his reported 
murder. The search was continued till toward the 
close of the year, with the result that Dr. Livingstone 
had certainly been seen at a long distance from the 
Lake Nyassa, months after he had been reported 
killed. The expedition under Mr. Young did not 
find Dr. Livingstone, but discovered enough to de- 
monstrate that Ali Moosa's story was an ably and 
cunningly devised romance. Then the Geographical 
Society received letters from Livingstone himself, 
which proved that he was alive and well in February, 
1867, some six months after Moosa's heroic but vain 
defense near Lake Nyassa. Authentic reports of his 
presence on Lake Ujiji in October of the same year 
were received. But about this time Sir Roderick 
Murchison published a letter in the London " Times'* 
newspaper, confidently predicting, on intelligence 
which he supposed to be reliable. Dr. Livingstone's 
return to England about the coming Christmas. It 
has since transpired that Sir Roderick was imposed 
upon by a round-about story from Trincomalee in the 
island of Ceylon, which had been based upon an en- 
tire misunderstanding of something that had been 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



8i 



said by Dr. Kirk, British Consul at Zanzibar, and the 
report of which was first transmitted from Trin- 
comalee. 

Dr. Livingstone did not appear in accordance with 
his friend's prediction, and the consequence was a 
new variety of reports of misfortune and death. 
Conjecture was free; nothing had been lately heard 
from him ; the suspense of the public in regard to 
the fate of one in whom there was so deep and uni- 
versal interest was absolutely painful. And it was at 
this time of intense public anxiety that an expedition 
was set on foot, the like of which had not previously 
been known and the complete success of which has 
bestowed upon its projector and commander im- 
perishable renown. 




CHAPTER V. 

THE HERALD EXPEDITION OF SEARCH. 

Tlie Great Development of Modern Journalism — The Telegraph — James Gor- 
don Bennett, Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond — The Magnitude ol 
American Journalistic Enterprise — The Herald Special Search Expedition 
for Dr. Livingstone — Stanley as a Correspondent — The Expedition on its 
Way Toward Livingstone. 

It has already been remarked that among the 
many important events which had occurred in Christen- 
dom during Dr. Livingstone's first great series of ex- 
plorations in Africa there were none of greater im- 
portance to mankind than the invention of the mag- 
netic telegraph, and the prodigious development, 
consequent thereon — at least in great part — of the 
newspaper press. There is not so much difference in 
means of travel, between the great, lumbering wagon 
of Cape Colony, drawn by a number of oxen which get 
over a few miles in a whole day and the means of travel 
by the best of America's great railways, as there is be- 
tween the means of current daily intelligence in 1872 
and the means of that current daily intelligence as 
they existed when Dr. Livingstone first placed foot in 
Africa. If a daily journal of the manner and style of 
one of that time were to be now established, it would 
be looked upon like a curious relic of the past or an 
old almanac. 

]Sfor is it strictly just to attribute the wondejful 

82 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA, S^ 

development of public journalism since about the 
year 1840 wholly to the success of Prof. Morse's 
invention of the magnetic telegraph. His success 
was largely due to the press, which at the time he 
sought aid of Congress in behalf of his discovery had 
already begun to be something more and something 
better than the mere organ of power or of party. At 
any rate it may with perfect safety be said that the 
practical success of Prof Morse's invention was con- 
siderably hastened by the influence of a public press 
into which had recently been infused an independent 
spirit and a consequent influence before unknown. 
Up to about the time of which we speak the most 
widely circulated journals of the United States had 
been printed at .the National Capital, a city which 
had never been representative of the country's trade, 
its literature, science, art, or labor. It was only the 
seat of government, the centre of the political power 
of a nation which claimed to lodge its political power 
in the people. Here flourished a number of journal- 
ists of the old school, whose skill in political manipu- 
lation, money making, and editorials without begin- 
ning and without end, can never be surpassed. There, 
is at this time more intelligence of the current eventy 
of the day in the poorest daily journals of the " far 
West" than there used to be in the " national organs' 
of the respective political parties contending for the 
control of our national polity. That neither one nor 
the other could have justly claimed any great amount 
of practical wisdom may be asserted with confidence 
since the result of the rule of both — now one and 
now the other — for a long period of years was a civil 



84 Stanley's story; or, 

war of lon^ duration and exhaustive effects, growing 
out of a question which both the great parties of the 
times had " finally" settled by act of Congress and 
solemn resolution on more than one memorable oc- 
casion. 

It was while this not very admirable fooling was 
about at its height, that certain knights of the quill, 
no less adventurous in their enterprises than Dr. 
Livingstone was in his explorations through the 
wilds of Africa, established themselves in the com- 
mercial metropolis of America, and soon became the 
head of a power in the land scarcely second to that 
of the government. If not a new estate in govern- 
ment, this power became a new estate in society. 
There sprang up an entirely new literature ; a liter- 
ature which, as regularly as the sun, appeared every 
morning, and soon came to be, to all well informed 
persons, about as necessary as the sun is to the physi- 
cal world. There was no subject too abstruse, none 
too sacred, none too high, and few too low for the es- 
says of the brilliant, daring, dashing minds which 
about this time threw themselves into the arena of 
journalism. Not a few who had been distinguished 
in the literature of former days became journalists, 
and the most celebrated of American novelists, the 
illustrious author of the " Leatherstocking Tales,** 
finding himself too " slow" for the times, became in- 
curably disgusted v/ith men who cared little for vener- 
able antiquity, and spoke of thrones and principali- 
ties, and powers, not to mention the writers of books, 
with all the sarcasm, wit, and irreverence of Junius 
and with infinitely more popular power. Here was, 




A REMARKABLE WASP NEST FOUND IN AFRICA. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 85 

as we have said, a new literature. What difference 
was it that the individual essays were only for a day ? 
Every day there were essays equally good, and they 
treated of political topics more fully and candidly 
than political topics had ever been discussed before 
by public journals, and they also treated of almost 
everything else under the sun. Every advance in 
science, every attempt at social or political reform, 
every humanitarian endeavor, every attack upon 
abuse and crime claimed to be hallowed by the lapse 
of time, every current event of importance of every 
kind, whether of fact or of idea, here in this wonder- 
ful kaleidescope could be seen, and then seen to give 
way to new spectacles of equal interest. Here the 
people were educated. There never has been dis- 
covered a means of education so powerful and so 
universal. It is, doubtless, owing to the fact that so 
many minds in America capable of creating a " per- 
manent literature" devoted themselves to this poten- 
tial means of influence, thereby losing their individu- 
ality but for the time being augmenting their power, 
that we have not yet produced an American Thack- 
eray or even an American Dickens. In the formative 
era of what may well be called journalism proper, a 
very large proportion of existing genius has been 
called into such active use, in America, that it has 
not had leisure for books. And even in England, 
many of the most distinguished thinkers have served 
their regular terms as journalists. 

Among the most celebrated of modern journalists 
was James Gordon Bennett, the founder of the New 
York " Herald" newspaper. A native of Scotland 



S6 Stanley's story; or, 

and a Roman Catholic in religion, he was educated 
for the priesthood, but whether, like John Randolph 
of Roanoke, he perceived that he had "too much 
spice of * old Nick'" in his composition for the sacred 
calling, or on other account, he did not take orders, 
but emigrated to America instead. After various 
fortune — generally misfortune — embracing teaching, 
translating, and associate-editorship, he embarked 
upon the " Herald" enterprise in 1S35. ^^ ^^^ ^^^ 
until some years afterwards, however, that this jour- 
nal acquired any considerable reputation outside the 
city of New York, and inaugurated those news en- 
terprises which made it so celebrated and a not un- 
faithful chronicler of the passing events of the whole 
world. During the era of " special correspondence" 
the " Herald" maintained an extensive corps of writ- 
ers In Europe and other foreign countries, who ever 
gave to the paper great interest and value. 

Meantime, other young men, since distinguished, 
had been educating themselves as journalists, and, 
like Bennett, through various fortune. Among them 
was Horace Greeley, who established the first penny 
daily paper ever published in the world, but Its foun- 
dations soon gave way. In 1841 the " Tribune" was 
established, and Mr. Bennett discovered In the great 
and varied abilities of Mr. Greeley and Henry J. 
Raymond, assistant editor, rivals whom no assaults 
could repress, and whose influence soon began to be 
felt and acknowledged throughout the country. The 
warfare long waged between these journalistic giants 
was always sharp, often fierce. The intense rivalry 
greatly augmented the enterprise of the printing 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. S^ 

offices which at length became vast establishments, 
employing thousands of men, from the greatest intel- 
lects of the age to the ragged urchins on the street. 
and receiving and disbursing vast sums of money. 

The invention of the telegraph added immensely 
to the scope and power of the daily press. Greatly 
increasing its expenditures, it also greatly augmented 
its circulation and profits. Its demand for brain-la- 
bor became perfectly prodigious, and it almost mo- 
nopolized the genius of the land. In the city of New 
York there were established within a very few years 
after Morse's invention had begun regularly to click 
the news of the day no less than four morning jour- 
nals of acknowledged reputation throughout the 
world, and which upon certain memorable occasions 
of current intelligence have contained in their com- 
bined columns nearly as great an amount of reading 
matter as the whole of Bancroft's history of the United 
States.* The average quantity of these journals' 
reading matter, of interest to the general public, is 
equivalent, every day, to from three to five volumes 
of Bancroft's distinguished work. 

Other cities of the republic have been little if any 
behind the commercial and financial metropolis, ex- 
cepting only the city of Washington whose most suc- 
cessful journalism of the old school has given way 
at last till quite recently to a series of wretched 
failures. 



♦As I write this, I take a copy of the Chicago "Tribun;" of the day, and 
find, by actual calculation, that it contains reading matter, excliwive of adver- 
tisements, equivalent to more than 350 pages of Bancroft. Among this mat- 
ter IS a profoundly thoughtful speech by Horace Greeley, delivered hundreds of 
miles dhitAnt the night before. 



88 Stanley's story; or, 

Editorials of a journal published in the largest city 
of our Lake country, which was a straggling hamlet 
when Dr. Livingstone first went to Africa, have been 
known to make the proudest speculators of Wall 
street tremble, and powerful corporations to abandon 
long-conceived schemes of injustice. In an exhaust- 
ive article on the United States census of i860, the 
New York " Tribune" said of the public press : 

" The very great increase in the circulation of 
newspapers and periodicals during the last ten years 
is an evidence at once of a high degree of popular 
intelligence and of a high standard of journalistic 
ability. There is no doubt that this country has the 
best, and the best sustained public press in the world 
— ^the best, we mean, for the people and not merely 
the learned few. Newspapers penetrate to every part 
of the country, reach even the most obscure hamlet, 
and find their way to almost every household. Print- 
ing offices go with the vanguard of civilization to- 
ward the west, and in the ' new country' are about as 
numerous as the mills. The dailies of the great cit- 
ies cannot be carried by the government mails ; they 
have created, during the decade, an entirely new line 
of business, supporting thousands of families; on 
issues fairly joined they have defeated many of the 
most maturely considered measures of Congressional 
Committees." 

Having given the statistics in regard to the num- 
ber and circulation oi ihc periodicals and papers ol 
the country at the time under examination, the arti- 
cle goes on to say : 

" The total number of daily papers thrown from the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 89 

press during the year is about half that of all the 
other papers and periodicals combined. Supposing 
each one to weigh an ounce, the weight of the whole 
number of daily papers printed in the United States 
during the year of the census was 28,644,678 pounds 
avoirdupois — enough to load 14,322 wagons with a ton 
each, or to make a train of them seventy miles in 
length. Were all the papers and periodicals printed ' 
in i860 placed in such a train, it would reach from" 
New York to Richmond. Should they be pasted into 
one vast sheet, they would make a covering for the 
continent, and leave a remnant large enough to shut 
out the sun from the British Islands. 

" But, not to dwell upon the mere material aspect 
of the Public Press of America, it will suffice to say 
that if its records shall be preserved the historian 
of two thousand years hence who shall narrate the 
tivents which are now taking place, will find upon 
their dingy pages his best authorities and his most 
trustworthy sources of philosophical generalization. 
Not all that is left of Grecian literature, not all the 
grand works of the fine old Romans, give so correct 
a picture of the great peoples of antiquity as the 
daily papers of America are now taking of a people 
far greater than that whose phalanges swept down the 
barbarians from the Hellespont to the Indus, or than 
that * the tramp of whose legions echoed round the 
world.'" 

To such magnificent proportions and s'uch stupen- 
dous influence had the American press grown during 
Livingstone's first sojourn in Africa, When he left 
England, its chief business was to chronicle small 



^O STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

beer. When he returned its power was more than 
imperial, and all exercised through persuasion. As it 
had grown in America, so it had been immensely de- 
veloped in other lands, but in respect of the publi- 
cation of current intelligence at the time of the hap- 
pening of events, the American press is not ap- 
proached by that of any other country. There is 
more telegraphic news in almost any number of any 
Chicago daily, for example, than the average quan- 
tity of such intelligence in the London "Times." 

An additional impetus to the enterprise of journal- 
ism was given by the success of the Atlantic cable 
during Dr. Livingstone's second great expedition to 
Africa. It is difficult to believe these o^reat facts 
though they have occurred before our very eyes 
This wonderful achievement of science, aided by the 
no less wonderful enterprise of the daily press of the 
United States, made the inhabitants of Christendom 
like next-door neighbors. A dispatch from Athens 
in Greece, was once published by all the evening daily 
journals of the United States at an earlier hour than 
its date. The difference of time and the " girdle 
round about the earth" put the inhabitants of the 
Mississippi Valley, as they took their suppers, in a 
situation in which they might have criticised an or- 
ation by Demosthenes before he had gone to bed, had 
Demosthenes belonged to this day and generation. 

Thus had the press become the great means of the 
dissemination of knowledge, and by reason of the 
wonderful enterprise of its most distinguished repre- 
sentative men, far more potential in the affairs of the 
vorld than any potentate or any government. It had 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 9I 

come to be acknowledged as of the greatest conse- 
quence in the dissemination of science, in popular- 
izing literature, in aiding moral, social, and political 
reform. But the irrepressibility of 'its enterprising 
spirit, its superiority even to the most powerful gov- 
ernment in respect of obtaining intelligence remained 
to be conclusively shown. And even this was done by 
the expedition of Mr. Henry M. Stanley, in the em- 
ploy of the New York " Herald," in search of Dr. 
Livingstone, long lost from Christendom in the wilds 
of central Africa, 

So deep an interest did the government of Great 
Britain take in discovering the truth of the reports 
of the explorer's death, first given to the world 
through the story of AH Moosa, as condensed by Dr 
Seward, English Resident Agent at Zanzibar — the 
substance of which appears in the proceeding chap- 
ter — that an expedition in that behalf was organized, 
and after many hundred miles of journeyings by river 
and land found unmistakable evidences that Moosa's 
story was a cruel fabrication. So, too, when years 
had elapsed without definite information from Dr. 
Livingstone, and there arose a world of wild conject- 
ure as to his fate, the British government again or- 
ganized an expedition of search, which, as we have 
seen, was at last accounts from it at Zanzibar, well 
prepared for an expedition inland but waiting for a 
proper season at which to begin the journey. 

Meantime the great discoverer is discovered in the 
heart of equatorial Africa by Mr. Henry M. Stanley, 
in command of an expedition of search sent out under 
the auspices of an American newspaper, the New 



92 Stanley's story; or, 

York " Herald." Thus did newspaper enterprise ac^ 
complish that in which the combined efforts of 
wealthy religious societies, learned corporate bodies, 
and one of the most powerful governments of earth 
had failed. A brief account of this unique expedition 
will be of interest : 

During the civil war in the United States-^i 86 1- 
65 — among the many "war correspondents'* of the 
" Herald" was Mr. Stanley, just mentioned. He was 
not so much distinguished as a writer as he was val- 
uable to the journal on account of his fearless nature 
and his restless activity. In imitation of Tennyson's 
charge of the Light Brigade, he would pursue an 
item if the search should carry him " into the jaws of 
hell." Restrained by no danger, almost insensible to 
fatigue, he could ride all day and write all night 
almost, and keep up this hard work for an indefinite 
period. After the war he went abroad and from va- 
rious countries, generally out of the way of ordinary 
lines of travel, corresponded with the " Herald.' 
When the proprietors of that journal — the elder Mr. 
Bennett was then living — determined to organize a 
" Herald Special Search Expedition," they naturally 
selected Mr. Stanley as its commander. This was in 
1868. Mr. Stanley at once accepted the charge, and, 
after some hesitation as to whether he should pro- 
ceed through Egypt up the Nile, or by way of Zanzi- 
bar and then westward overland, or by the line of the 
river Rovuma, the route taken by Livingstone, he at 
length resolved to go by way of Zanzibar. This in 
an island, and town also of the same name, off the 
coast of Zanguebar, and is toward the southern limit of 




HENRY Mc STANLEY, 
AS HE APPEARED ON HIS FIRST EXPEDITION. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 93 

Mohammedan rule in Africa. Here Mr. Stanley ar- 
rived in due season, and hence wrote his first letter 
in this special service, under date of February 9, i86q 
It chiefly had reference to Livingstone's previous ex- 
plorations, the story of his death, and its refutation. 
But the report that he was only about a week's march 
inland from Zanzibar also received a quietus, and 
Mr. Stanley was well nigh persuaded to retrace his 
steps to Egypt and proceed by way of the Nile, in 
consequence of the following note from the United 
States Vice Consul : 

"Island of Zanzibar, Dec. 26, 1868. 
" Dear Sir — I should be most happy to assist you 
in any way whatever ; but, in reply to your note, I 
beg to assure you of my candid belief of his non- 
appearance. There is not the slightest probability 
of his ever coming again to this island. Dr. Kirk 
the British Vice Consul here, and who was with Dr 
Livingstone for some years during his travels in 
Africa, thinks it more than probable that he will 
come out at the Nile, and has not the least expecta- 
tion of having the pleasure of seeing him here. In 
September, 1868, Her Majesty's ship Octavia, Sir 
Leopold Heath, C. B., left here, and as I see by the 
Bombay papers, on her arrival at Trincomalee, which 
is in Ceylon, reported that when she left Zanzibar 
Dr. Livingstone was reported within a week's march 
of the coast. This, if you saw it, probably misled 
you also to believe he would come here, but it is 
hardly necessary to say that the statement was with 
out the slightest foundation of truth, and was proK 



94 STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

ably written from some entire misconception by the 
writer of some conversation which took pLtce be- 
tween him and Dr. Kirk. Trusting, however, you 
will succeed on the other side, I am, dear sir, very re- 
spectfully 

" Francis R. Webb, 
" United States Vice Consul.*' 

Nevertheless, Mr. Stanley determined to go on 
and telegraphing to an acquaintance residing at 
Khartoum, Upper Nubia, to send him word, if any- 
thing should be heard from Livingstone, went forward 
with the preparations for his journey. He was doubt- 
less cognizant of the fact also, that the " Herald" had 
another Search expedition on foot to which the Khe- 
dive of Egypt was rendering generous encourage- 
ment and assistance. It may well be imagined that 
the drafts upon the " Herald" at this time for neces- 
sary outlays in the purchase of horses, asses, and sup- 
plies and the employment of a sufficient escort — 
mainly consisting of a number of Arabs — were not 
light. The preparations, after months' delay, caused 
by war in the interior, were at length made, and 
the expedition left Zanzibar on the long-ago trail of 
the great explorer. 

And here it will be proper, while we are awaiting 
intelligence of its difficulties and final great success, 
to speak of the previous life of him who was to make 
so many hearts glad by tidings of the safety of the 
most distinguished explorer of our times. 




AN AFRICAN MUSICIAN. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HENRY MORLAND STANLEY. 

His Nativity — Early Life — Comes to America — His Adoption by a New Orleans 
Merchant — His Career during the Civil War — Becomes Correspondent of the 
New York " Herald " — Sails for the Island of Crete to enlist in the cause of the 
Cretans, then at war — But changes his mind on arriving there — Instead Under- 
takes a journey through Asia Minor, the Provinces of Russian Asia, etc. — At- 
tacked and plundered by Turkish Brigands — Relieved by Hon. E. Joy Morris, 
the American Minister — Goes to Egypt; to Abyssinia — Remarkable success 
there — His sudden call to Paris from Madrid by Mr. Bennett, of the " Herald " 
■ -Account of the Interview— ^Mr. Stanley goes to find Livingstone in command 
of the *' Herald's " Livingstone Expedition. 

The subject of our sketch was born near Denbigh, 
Wales, in 1840. His parents' name was Rowland. 
At three years of age he was sent to the poor-house 
at St. Asaph, to get an education. He, the poor, un- 
promising lad, remained until he had finished such an 
education as this Institution could furnish, and then 
sought employment as teacher ; and for a year was 
employed as such at Mold, Flintshire. But It was then 
that the strong instincts of his nature began to show 
themselves. He felt that a school-teacher's life, how- 
ever honorable and useful, could not be his, and with 
his scant earnings shipped as a cabin-boy In a ship 
bound for New Orleans. Arriving in safety, he began 
to look about for employment. By what lucky chance 
it happened we do not know, but he fell Into the hands 
of a merchant named Stanley, who became so attached 

95 



g6 Stanley's story; or, 

to the frank, energetic, ambitious youth that he finally 
adopted him and gave him his name. Thus the Welsh 
boy Rowland became the American youth Stanley. 
Fortune had certainly smiled upon him, and his future 
seemed secure. 

But in his case, as in that of hundreds of others, the 
fate of war stepped in to mar his fair prospects at this 
stage of his career. The outbreak of the Rebellion 
led him into the ranks of the Southern Confederacy ; 
but only for a brief period. He was taken a prisoner 
by the Union forces, and shortly thereafter, upon tak- 
ing the oath of allegiance, was released on parole. As 
the Union cause really had his sympathies, he at once 
proposed to enlist in the Northern army. But whether 
the military authorities were afraid of this sudden con- 
version, or not daring to give too much freedom of 
action to one who showed by his whole bearing and 
language that there was no undertaking too daring for 
him to attempt, we are not told ; but they put him, 
however, where he would probably have little chance 
to show what stuff he was made of — on board of the 
iron-clad ship Ticonderoga, he consenting to volunteer 
in the navy. Though totally unfit for service of any 
kind on board of a man-of-war, he soon became an 
acting ensign. At the close of the war he looked 
about for some field of active service, and what little 
war he had seen seemed to fit his peculiar character. 
Hearing that the Cretans were about to attempt to 
throw off the Turkish yoke, he resolved to join them. 
He proceeded to that country in company with two 
other adventurous spirits in 1866, after having first 
made an engagement with the New York "Herald" 




AN ARAB COUHfgR. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 97 

- ■ ■ • 

as its correspondent. But upon arriving at his desti- 
nation he found occasion to become displeased with 
the leaders of the revolution, and declined to volun- 
teer in the army of the famous little island. 

" His chief recommendation at this time," says a 
great journal, " was his energy and industry and fear- 
lessness in collecting facts, not the style in which he 
told them ; for although he had previously shown 
some indications of literary ability, his pen was as yet 
neither practiced nor fluent." His energy, industry 
and fearlessness were doubtless better appreciated in 
the "Herald" office than by the general public; but his 
reputation as a writer grew with time, and he con- 
stantly performed his correspondential duties to the 
satisfaction of his experienced employers. 

It appears that he had a sort of roving commission 
from the " Herald," and now undertook a journey on 
foot with a few traveling companions of his own coun- 
try, by which it was contemplated to pass through Asia 
Minor, the provinces of Russian Asia, the Khanates, 
Bokhara, and Kiva, Eastern Turkestan, and so through 
China to the coast. This project came, however, to a 
disastrous end. The little party had not penetrated 
more than about an hundred miles from Smyrna, 
when it was attacked by Turkish brigands, completely 
plundered, and compelled, in consequence, to return. 
Arriving at Constantinople in a most sorry plight, the 
members of the party were kindly received by the 
Hon. E. Joy Morris, then United States Minister to the 
Turkish Sultan, and their wants supplied by a check 
upon the generous Minister's private banker. An 
account of the affair, written by Mr. Stanley, had ap- 



qS Stanley's story; or, 

peared in a public journal of the country, so that Mr. 
Morris had been apprised of the facts — afterwards 
fully substantiated in a court of justice — before the 
travelers appeared, in shabby attire, attesting a needy 
situation. 

On the return of Mr. Stanley to Constantinople, a 
few years after this event, and during the last year of 
Mr. Morns' official residence in Turkey, he called 
upon that gentleman. He had then just come from 
Egypt. We here give Mr. Morris' description of 
Stanley, in his own words : 

" The uncouth young man whom I first knew had 
grown into a perfect man of the world, possessing the 
appearance, the manners and the attributes of a per- 
feet gentleman. The story of the adventures which he 
had gone through, and the dangers he had passed 
during his absence were perfectly marvellous, and he 
became the lion of our little circle. Scarcely a day 
passed but he was a guest at my table ; and no one 
was more welcome, for I insensibly grew to have a 
strong admiration and felt an attachment for him 
myself Instead of thinking he was a young man who 
had barely seen twenty-six summers you would imag- 
ine that he was thirty-five or forty years of age, so 
cultured and learned was he in all the ways of life. 
He possessed a thorough acquaintance with most of 
the Eastern countries, and, as I took an interest in 
all that related to Oriental life, we had many a talk 
about what he had seen and what I longed to see. 
He stated to me that he had a sort of roving commis- 
sion for the * Herald,' but that he had exhausted all 
known countries, and was at a loss to understand 




EQUIPPED FOR WAR. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 99 

where he should go next. I said to him, * Stanley, 
what do you think of trying Persia ? That is an unex- 
plored country, and would well repay a visit, if you 
could get back with your life.' Stanley thought over 
the proposal, and rapidly came to the conclusion he 
would go. I busied myself in procuring him letters 
of introduction to the Russian authorities in the Cau- 
casus, in Georgia, and in other countries through which 
he would have to pass. He saw the Russian Ambas- 
sador at Constantinople in person, who was so well 
impressed with him that he made extra exertions to 
facilitate his progress to the mysterious home of the 
Grand Llama. I had some time previous to this had 
a Henry rifle sent me from a friend in New York, as 
a specimen of American art, and this I presented to 
Stanley, with my best wishes for the success of his 
undertaking. He started on the desperate enterprise 
some time after, and my table thereby lost one of its 
most entertaining guests. When I say desperate en- 
terprise I mean it, for Persia is to a European a 
practically unexplored country ; and in consequence 
of its weak government and the marauders with which 
it abounds, a journey to Zanzibar or Unyanyembe 
would be a safe trip compared to it. How Mr. Stan- 
ley accomplished the task he undeftook the columns 
of the ' Herald ' will tell. I received a letter from 
him, while on the way, narrating the hospitable man- 
ner in which he had been entertained by the Russian 
authorities, and the way in which he had astonished 
them by the performances of his Henry rifle. His 
journey through the Caucasus and Georgia was a sort 
of triumphal march, though he was looked upon as ai 



ICX) STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

lost man by all who knew anything of the East. The 
route he took was an entirely new one, as he went in 
a kind of zigzag way to Thibet, and he must have a 
charmed life to have come through so much peril in 
complete safety." 

A considerable portion of the year 1868 was spent 
by Mr. Stanley in Abyssinia, where he accompanied 
the British expedition against King Theodore. He 
went with the English army as far as Magadla, and 
upon several occasions was enabled to transmit ac- 
counts of the expedition, embracing most important 
news, to the " Herald " in advance of intelligence sent 
to the British government. The people of America 
were thus supplied with intelligence of this singular 
British foray in northeastern Africa in advance of the 
people of England. These remarkable successes in 
Abyssinia were highly appreciated by the " Herald," 
and considerably enhanced the correspondent's abili- 
ties and services in the special line he was working 
upon. And it was no doubt the signal abiHty thus 
displayed which led the younger Bennett to choose 
this man for his purpose when he had decided to send 
an expedition after Livingstone. 

The account of the interview and the incidents lead- 
ing to it between James Gordon Bennett, Jr., and Mr. 
Stanley are exceedingly interesting, as given in the 
words of Mr. Stanley himself He was at the time in 
Madrid, Spain, October i6th, 1869. At 10 o'clock A. 
M. he was handed a telegram, which read : " Come 
to Paris on important business," and bore the sig- 
nature of James Gordon Bennett, Jr., then the young 
manager of the " Herald." 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. lOI 

" Down come my pictures from the walls of my 
apartments on the second floor; Into my trunks go 
my books and souvenirs ; my clothes are hastily col- 
lected, some half-washed, some from the clothes-line 
half-dry, and after a couple of hours of hasty hard 
work my pormanteaus are strapped up and labelled 
for Paris. 

" The express train leaves Madrid for Hendaye at 3 
P. M. I have yet time to say farewell to my friends. 
I have one at No. 6 Calle Goya, fourth floor, who 
happens to be a contributor to several London dailies. 
He has several children in whom I have taken a warm 
interest. Little Charlie and Willie are fast friends of 
mine ; they love to hear of my adventures, and it has 
been a pleasure to me to talk to them. But now I 
must say farewell. 

"Then I have friends at the American Legation 
whose conversation I admire. There has come a sud- 
den ending of It all. * I hope you will write to us. We 
shall always be glad to hear of your welfare.* How 
often have I not during my feverish life as a flying 
journalist heard the very same words, and how often 
have I not suffered the same pang at parting from 
friends just as warm as these. 

" But a journalist in my position must needs suffer. 
Like a gladiator In the arena, he must be prepared for 
the combat. Any flinching, any cowardice, and he is 
lost. The gladiator meets the sword that is sharpened 
for his bosom — the flying journalist or roving corres- 
pondent meets the command that may send him to his 
doom. To the battle or the banquet it is ever th-e 
same — * Get ready and go.' 



I02 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

"At 3 P. M. I was on my way, and being obliged to 
stop at Bayonne a few hours, did not arrive at Paris 
until the following night. I went straight to the 
Grand Hotel, and knocked at the door of Mr. Ben- 
nett's room. 

" * Come in,' I heard a voice say. 

" Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed. 

" * Who are you ?' he asked. 

" * My name is Stanley,' I answered. 

"*Ah, yes; sit down. I have important business on 
hand for you,' " 

After throwing over his shoulders his robe-de-cham- 
bre, Mr. Bennett proceeded to ask Stanley, " Where 
do you think Livingstone is ?" 

" I really do not know, sir," answered Stanley. 

" Do you think he is alive ?" continued Bennett. 

" He may be, and he may not be," replied Stanley. 

" Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, 
and I am going to send you to find him," was Bennett's 
rejoinder. 

"What !" said Stanley. " Do you really think I can 
find Dr. Livingstone ? Do you mean me to go to 
Central Africa ?" 

" Yes ; I mean that you shall go and find him, 
wherever you may hear that he is, and to get what 
news you can of him, and perhaps"- — delivering him- 
self thoughtfully and deliberately — -" the old man may 
be in want. Take enough with you to help him, 
should he require it. Of course you will act according 
to your own plans, and do what you think best — 
BUT FIND Livingstone ! " 

" Have you considered seriously the great expense 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. IO3 

you are likely to incur on account of this little jour- 
ney ?" suggested Stanley, wondering at the cool order 
of sending one to Central Africa to search for a man 
whom he, in common with almost all other men, be- 
lieved to be dead. 

''What will it cost?" asked Mr. Bennett. 

" Burton and Speke's journey to Central Africa cost 
between ^3,000 and ^5,000, and I fear it cannot be 
done under ^2,500," replied Mr. Stanley. 

" Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw a 
thousand pounds now, and when you have gone 
through that, draw another thousand ; and when that 
is spent, draw another thousand ; and when you have 
finished that, draw another thousand, and so on ; but 
FIND Livingstone ! " 

Stanley, though somewhat surprised, yet not con- 
fused at the order— for he knew that Mr. Bennett, 
when once he had made up his mind, was not easily 
drawn aside from his purpose— thought, seeing it 
was such a gigantic undertaking, that he had not 
quite fully considered in his own mind the pros and 
cons of the case, and said, " I have heard that should 
your father die you would sell the * Herald ' and retire 
from business." 

" Whoever told you that is wrong, for there Is not 
money enough in New York city to buy the ^ Herald/ 
My father has made it a great paper ; but I mean to 
make it greater. I mean that it shall be a newspaper 
in the true sense of the word. I mean that it shall 
publish whatever news will be interesting to the 
world, at no matter what cost." 

*' After that," says Stanley, " I have nothing more to 



I04 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

say. Do you mean me to go straight on to Africa to 
search for Dr. Livingstone ?" 

Mr. Bennett thereupon outHned a course of instruc- 
tions as to what he would have Stanley do in the 
matter, closing with these words : 

" Bagdad will be close on your way to India. Sup- 
pose you go there and write up something about the 
Euphrates Valley Railroad. Then, when you have 
come to India, you can go after Livingstone. Proba- 
bly you will hear by that time that Livingstone is on 
his way to Zanzibar ; but if not, go into the interior 
and find him, if alive. Get what news of his discov- 
eries you can ; and, if you find he is dead, bring all 
possible proof of his being dead. That is all. Good 
night, and God be with you." 

Thus it was that Stanley received his carte blanche, 
and as promptly set out upon his mission. He was 
then about twenty-nine years of age, a thick-set, power- 
ful man, though short of stature, being only about five 
feet seven inches in height. He is a sure shot, an 
expert swimmer, a fine horseman, a trained athlete. 
But few men living have had more experience in 
" roughing it." A better selection for the command 
of its singular undertaking could not possibly have 
been made by the " Herald," and this the result, so 
astonishing to the world, has practically demonstrated. 

All civilized nations had shared the anxiety to know 
whether Livingstone was living or dead. If living, 
where ; if dead, where he died, and how. It was sur- 
mised that he had with him the records of a number 
of years, covering many of the most important discov- 
eries ever made in Africa, containing many things of 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. IO5 

infinite consequence In connection with the great work 
of African evangelization, and of Immense Importance 
in the interests of science. There were reasons, 
therefore, why he should not die In the forests of 
Manyuema. 

Mr. Stanley was a " flying correspondent," but God 
saw in him the elements of a hero demanded by so 
great an occasion. We do not believe that he does 
himself justice In Insinuating that he went to Africa 
only as he would have gone anywhere else under 
orders from his employer. Such a spirit of obedience 
and faithfulness under an engagement is commenda- 
ble ; but we prefer to recognize in Mr. Stanley a spirit 
which lifts him above the common level of ordinary 
business honesty. He manifested an enthusiasm in 
this undertaking which betrayed a greatness of soul 
which he has preferred to conceal, that his employer 
might have the more honor. He might not have 
essayed this expedition at the suggestions of his own 
benevolence — he probably could not have done so ; 
but when he found that he might do It, his heart 
bounded to the work. We believe he went forth from 
Paris under a higher commission than that of Mr. 
Bennett. There was needed money, and there was 
needed a man. God knew where to "find both, and 
He did find them just when He saw that one of His 
noblest servants was approaching an extremity. 

From Mr. Stanley's Zanzibar letter of February 9th, 
1869, we quote his conclusion: 

" Now the readers of this letter know really as much 
of the whereabouts of Dr. Livingstone as I do ; but 
probably from conversations heard from different per- 



To6 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



sons I have greater reasons for judging of the case, 
and I believe it will be a very long time yet before Dr. 
Livingstone arrives, and that his return will be by the 
river Nile." 

With this opinion, but with a good stock of supplies 
for Livingstone's journey down the Nile, should he be 
found proceeding in that way, and with the best escort 
attainable, Stanley, in charge of the unique newspaper 
expedition, after long delay, on account of wars, 
plunged into the wilderness, to be heard from no 
more until after many long months of suspense and 
conjecture. 




CHAPTER VII. 

MR. STANLEY IN AFRICA. 

The Search for Dr. Livingstone Energetically Begun — Progress Delayed by 
Wars — The Successful Journey from Unyanyembe to Ujiji in 1871 — The 
" Herald" Cable Telegram Announcing the Safety of Livingstone — The 
Battles and Incidents of this Newspaper Campaign — Receipt of the Great 
News — The Honor Bestowed on American Journalism. 

Mr. Stanley found it much more difficult to get 
into Africa than to that singular land. It was un- 
derstood, according to the best intelligence to be had 
that Dr. Livingstone would probably be found, if 
found at all, not far from Ujiji. From Bagamoyo, on 
the mainland of Africa, opposite the island of Zanzi- 
bar, there is a caravan route to Unyanyembe. The 
journey generally takes some four months. At the 
time Mr. Stanley undertook to proceed inland, he 
found the country disturbed by wars, and though 
starting now and again, he was delayed many weary 
months on this account. " Forward and back" was 
the necessary call of the situation. At length the 
country became so far quiet between Bagamoyo and 
Unyanyembe that the expedition, which terminated 
in success, set forth very early in April, 1871, and, 
after an unusually rapid journey, the caravan reached 
Unyanyembe on the 23d of June. Hence letters 
were dispatched home, but from this time for more 
than a year, the world remained in ignorance of the 
fate of the expedition. 

107 



fo8 Stanley's story; or, 

Upon the morning of the 2d of July, 1872, how- 
ever, in the midst of the great Peace Jubilee at the 
city of Boston, appeared a cable telegram from Lon 
don to the New- York " Herald,'* announcing the dis- 
covery of Livingstone and the consequent complete 
success of the great American journal's enterprise. 
This telegram is worthy of preservation, though su- 
perseded by the fuller information in Mr. Stanley's 
letters, as an illustration of newspaper enterprise : 

London, July i, 1872. 

THE GLORIOUS NEWS. 

It is with the deepest emotions of pride and pleas- 
ure that I announce the arrival this day of letters 
from Mr. Stanley, Chief of the Herald Exploring 
Expedition to Central Africa. I have forwarded the 
letters by mail. Knowing, however, the importance 
of the subject and the impatience with which 

RELIABLE NEWS 

is awaited, I hasten to telegraph a summary of the 
Herald explorer's letters, which are full of the 
most romantic interest, while affirming, emphatically, 

THE SAFETY OF DR. LIVINGSTONE, 

and confirming the meagre reports already sent on 
here by telegraph from Bombay and duly forwarded 
to the Herald. To bring up the thread of 

THE THRILLING NARRATIVE 

where the last communication from him ended he 
proceeds with his account of the journey. It will be 
recalled that when last heard from he had arrived in 
the country of Unyanyembe, after a perilous march 
of eighty-two days from Bagamoyo, on the coast op- 
posite the island of Zanzibar. The road up to this 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. IO9 

point had been in 

THE REGULAR CARAVAN TRACK, 

and the journey was performed in a much shorter 
time than the same distance had been traversed by 
previous explorers. The expedition 

ARRIVED AT UNYANYEMBE 

on the 23d of June, 1871, where he sent forward his 
communication. The caravan had need of rest, and 
it was necessary to refit while an opportunity was at 
hand through the medium of the Arab caravans then 
on their way to various points on the coast with ivory 
r d slaves. The expedition had suffered terribly, 
but the heart of the Herald explorer never gave 
out 

THE TERRIBLE CLIMATE 

of the countries through which it had passed told on 
it even more than the difficulties of the tribes at v;ar 
among themselves and upon everything that came in 
their way and which they were in sufficient force to 
attack. The caravans met at the various halting 
places threw every discouragement in the way, which 
tended to destroy the morale of the expedition. 

SEEDY BOMBAY, 

however, the captain of the expedition, proved in- 
valuable in controlling the disaffected, whether with 
tact or a wholesome display of force when necessary 

THE INCESSANT RAINS, 

alternated with a fierce African sun, made the atmos- 
phere heavy, charged with moisture, and producing 
a rank, rotten vegetation. In the mountainous re- 
gions which we traversed the climate was. of course 
much better, and the result was that the expedition 



no STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

much Improved in health. The miasmatic vapors 
and other hardships of the journey had played sad 
havoc with its number and force. 

THE TOTAL LOSS 

up to this point by sickness had been one white man, 
two of the armed escort, and eight of the pagazis 
or native porters. The two horses had also suc- 
cumbed, and twenty-seven of the asses had either 
fallen by the wayside and had to be abandoned or 
else the rascally native donkey leaders had allowed 
them to stray from the kraal at night. As a conse- 
quence, a considerable quantity of the stores were 
either lost or wasted, but the rolls of Merikani 
(American cloth) — for shukkah and doti — the 
beads and wire — had been as far as possible pre- 
served, they being the only money in Central Africa. 
In July 

ALL WAS PREPARED TO MOVE 

through Unyanyembe ; but before long it was found 
that almost insuperable difficulties were Interposed 
The country there Is composed of thick jungle, with 
large clearings for the cultivation of holcus. The 
utmost alarm and excitement were spread through the 
native villages at 

THE EXPECTATION OF A WAR. 

The Inhabitants were shy of intercourse, and it was 
with great difficulty that supplies could be obtained 
A little further on the villages on either side of the 
track were found to be filled with Arab 

CARAVANS AFRAID TO ADVANCE. 

and gathering together for security. The cause ol 
all this alarm was soon discovered, The ku honga 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. Ill 

or blackmail levied by the head men of the tribes as 
a sort of toll for passage through their territories^ 
had been inordinately raised in the Ujowa country by 

MIRAMBO, 

King of the Wagowa. Obstinate fights had already 
occurred in which small bands of his soldiers had 
been beaten, several being killed. He had, therefore, 
declared to the traders that no caravan should pass 
to Ujiji except over his body. The Arabs hereupon 
held a council, and, finding themselves strong in fight 
ing men, 

DECLARED WAR ON MIRAMBO. 

The Herald commander took part in this. The 
Arabs appeared to anticipate a speedy victory, and 
preparations for a jungle fight were accordingly made. 
The ammunition was looked to, muskets inspected 
and matchlocks cleaned. The superior armament of 
the Herald expedition made their assistance a mat- 
ter of great importance to the Arabs. 

THE herald goes TO WAR. 

An address was delivered to the members of the 
expedition through Selim, the interpreter, and the 
forces, with the American flag flying, were marshalled 
by Captain Seedy Bombay. 

THE FIRST FIGHT. 

At daybreak on the day following, according to 
previous arrangement, the armed men were divided 
into three parties. The vanguard for attack, the rear 
guard as immediate reserve, and the remainder, con- 
sisting of the less active, were stationed with the im- 
pedimenta and slaves in the kraals. The advance was 
ordered and responded to with alacrity, and the first 



112 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

village where the soldiers of Mirambo were lying was 
at once attacked and speedily captured. The inhabi- 
tants were 

EITHER KILLED OR DRIVEN AWAY. 

Another village followed the fate of the first, and 
both were left in ashes before nightfall. The troops 
were wearied with the hot day's work, but all were 
elate at their success thus far. The commander of 
the Herald expedition, on his return to camp, 
passed a sleepless night, and morning found him 

IN A HIGH FEVER. 

He was therefore obliged to remain in camp, and his 
forces refused to fight except under his lead. This 
weakened the Arab force considerably, and, although 
the dreaded Mirambo and his followers, thirsting for 
vengeance, were known to be in the vicinity, the day 
was passed in fatal inactivity. 

THE AMBUSH OF MIRAMBO. 

The third day seemed as if about to pass like the 
preceding, the Herald commander still suffering 
from the fever, when shots were heard In the direc- 
tion of the Arab kraals, and it soon became evident 
that the wily Mirambo had ambushed the Arabs 
This, in effect, was the case. A superior body of 
natives, armed with muskets, assegais (spears) and 
poisoned arrows, had suddenly burst upon the Arabs 

A TERRIFIC SLAUGHTER ENSUED, 

which ended in the rout with the Arabs, who took 
refuge in the jungle. The fourth day brought with 
it the fruit of the disaster. The Arabs could not be 
prevailed upon to renew the fight, and desertion and 
flight became the order of the day. Even the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. II 3 

MEN OF THE HERALD EXPEDITION DESERTED, 

leaving but six with the commander. Mirambo no^ 
threatened the town of Unyanyembe. By stupen- 
dous exertion the commander collected one hundred 
and fifty of the fugitives ; these being convinced by 
their numbers, when collected together, that resist- 
ance was still possible, resolved to obey the com- 
mander. 

FORTIFYING FOR A SIEGE. 

With five days provisions on hand the houses were 
loopholed and barricades erected, videttes stationed 
and the defenders told off as well as their numbers, 
armament and morale could be individually depend- 
ed oa 

THE AMERICAN FLAG WAS HOISTED 

and the trembling inhabitants awaited the expected 
attack. This, however, was destined not to come off, 
for, to the general delight, a Wanyamwezi scout 
brought in the joyful intelligence that Mirambo, with 
all his forces, had retired, not caring to risk an en- 
gagement, except in the jungle. Mustering what 
force was possible, the intrepid Herald commander 
then 

STARTED FOR UJIJI, 

on the Tanganyika Lake, or Sea of Ujiji. The Arabs 
endeavored in vain to dissuade him from this. Death, 
they said, was certain to the muzanyu (white man) and 
his followers. This frightened the already demoral- 
ized pagazis and caused a serious loss to the expedi- 
tion in the person of Shaw, the English sailor. Un- 
daunted by the forebodings of ill and the losses by 
desertion, the caravan once more was on the march 
and pushed forward 



114 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

BY ANOTHER ROAD, - 

to the one where Mirambo and his Africans were 
awaiting the first caravan. This road lay through an 
untrodden desert, and caused 

A GREAT DETOUR 

in order to come again upon the caravan road in the 
rear of the Wajowa. No great mishaps were met 
with, and when the villages and cultivated fields of 
sorghum, and holcus were reached everything pro- 
gressed favorably. 

AFTER A FOUR HUNDRED MILE JOURNEY 

the outlying portions of the province of Ujiji were 
reached. Word had reached the expedition of the 
presence of Dr. Livingstone in the province within a 
recent period, and accordingly preparations were 
made for 

A TRIUMPHIAL ENTRY INTO UJIJI. 

The pagazis who chanced to be unladen proceeded, 
beating drums and blowing upon Kudu horns. The 
armed escort fired salutes every moment, keeping up 
a regular feu de joie, and the American flag floated 
proudly over all. In the distance lay the silver 
bosom of Tanganyika Lake, at the foot of the stately 
mountains in the background, and fringed with tall 
trees and lovely verdure. It was a wonderful relief 
to the pilgrims of progress. Before them lay the 
settlement or town of Ujiji, with its huts and houses 
looking dreamily like a land of rest. 

THE ASTONISHED NATIVES 

turned out at the unwonted display, and flocked in 
crowds to meet them with deafeninof shouts and beat- 
ing of drums. Among the advancing throng was no 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. II5 

liced a muscular group of turbaned Arabs. As they 
advanced still nearer 

ONE OF THE GROUP 

who walked in the centre was noticed to be different- 
ly attired from the others. The group halted, and 
the word was passed back that a muzangu was among 
them. Spurring forward the Herald commander 
indeed saw that, strongly contrasting with the dusky, 
sunburnt Arab faces, was 

a HALE-LOOKING, GRAY-BEARDED WHITE MAN, 

wearing a navy cap, with a faded gold band and a red 
woolen jacket. It was a trying moment, wherein 
every emotion of hope and fear flashed through the 
brain. The fatigues faded in the intensity of the sit- 
uation. The questions, was this he who had so long 
been sought, or could it be a delusion of the mind, or 
was the white man some unknown waif of humanity? 
crowded the mind, bringing their changing feelings 
with them. A few feet in front of the group the 
Herald commander halted, dismounted and ad- 
vanced on foot. 

a historic meeting. 

Preserving a calmness of exterior before the Arabs 
which was hard to simulate as he reached the group, 
Mr. Stanley said : — 

" Dr. Livingstone, I presume ?" 

A smile lit up the features of the hale white man 
as he answered : 

"YES, that is my name." 

The meeting was most cordial, and the wearied 

caravan, joyous at the triumph of the expedition 

were escorted by the multitude to the town. After 
10 



ii6 Stanley's story; or, 

2 rest and a meal, in which milk, honey and fish from 
Tanganyika were new features, 

LIVINGSTONE TOLD HIS STORY, 

which is briefly as follows : — 

Tn March, 1866, he informed the Herald ex- 
plorer that he started with twelve Sepoys, nine Jo- 
hanna men and seven liberated slaves. He travelled 

UP THE ROVUMA RIVER. 

Before they had been gone very long the men be- 
came frightened at the nature of the journey, and 
the reports of hostile tribes up the country they were 
to pass through. At length they deserted him, and^ 
as a cover to their cowardice in doing so, circulated 

THE REPORT OF HIS DEATH. 

Livingstone proceeded on his journey in spite of 
the isolation, and after some difficult marching 
reached the Chambezi River, which he crossed. He 
found that this was not the Portuguese Zambezi 
River, as had been conjectured, but, on the contrary, 
wholly separate. He traced its course, and found it 
called further on 

THE lualaba. 

He continued his explorations along its banks for 
700 miles, and has become convinced in consequence 
that the Chambezi is 

DOUBTLESS THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 

and that this will make a total length for the mystic 
river of Africa of 2,600 miles. His explorations also 
establish that the Nile is not supplied by Lake Tan- 
ganyika, He reached within 180 miles of the source 
and explored the surrounding ground, when. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. II7 

FINDING HIMSELF WITHOUT SUPPLIES, 

he was obliged to return to Ujiji and was in a state 
of destitution there when met by the commander of 
the " Herald" expedition. On the i6th of October, 
1871, 

THE TWO EXPLORERS LEFT UJIJI 

and arrived at Unyanyembe toward the end of No- 
vember, where they passed twenty-eight days to- 
gether exploring the district They then returned 
and 

SPENT CHRISTMAS TOGETHER 

at Uj'iji. The Herald explorer arrived at the point 
of sending this important intelligence on the 14th of 
March, 1872, leaving Livingstone at Unyanyembe. 

LIVINGSTONE'S FURTHER PLANS. 

He will explore the north shore of Tanganyika 
Lake and the remaining 180 miles of the Lualaba 
River. 

This herculean task he expects will occupy the next 
two years. 

There have been but few " sensations'* more pro- 
found than the sensation created by this despatch. 
As has been said, it threw the great Peace Jubilee 
into the shade. Sporting men who had just won on 
the race-horse " Longfellow" or lost on " Harry Bas- 
sett," paused for a while to think of the strange in- 
telligence. The report of the trial of him who had 
been charged with the murder of the noted James 
Fisk, Jr. attracted but comparatively little attention. 
All through the section of the great city known as 
" Five Points" the news was discussed by the tatter- 



ii8 Stanley's story; or, 

demalions of the metropolis ; all up and down Fiftli 
Avenue, thousands of the best representatives oi 
wealth and of culture canvassed the double-leaded tel- 
egram ; and Wall street gave it as much attention as 
it gave to stocks and government securities. The 
substance of the telegram was sent to the evening 
papers all over the country and to Europe, and be- 
fore sunset of July 2d a vast majority of intelligent 
people of Christendom knew that Livingstone had 
been found, and through the means of American pri- 
vate enterprise. It was a triumph in which the 
" Herald" might have been excused, had it indulged 
in no little self-glorification. Its article upon the 
subject, however, was greatly national in spirit, and 
awarded the credit of the success to American jour 
nalism, rather than claimed it for itself.* 

♦The leading article of the " Herald" upon this subject is worthy of quota- 
tion here as a part of the journalistic history of this remarkable expedition : 

The triumph of the Herald exploring expedition to search in the heart of 
Equatorial Africa for the long-lost Doctor David Livingstone is one which be- 
longs to the entire press of America as well as to the journal whose fortune it 
was to originate and carry it out. It marks the era in which the press, already 
beyond the control of even the most exalted among men, who may hold states 
and empires in their grasp, strikes out boldly into new fields and treads daringly 
on terra incognita, whether of mind or matter. This is distinctively the work of 
the American press, whose aspirations and ambitions have grown with the maj- 
esty of the land, and whose enterprise has been moulded on the national charac- 
ter. In even recent times the work of progress lay in government hands, or 
else was wholly neglected. Sir John Franklin started out amid Polar snows to 
work out the Northern passage only to leave his bones among the eternal ice. 
Hand or foot was not stirred to learn his fate until Lady Franklin, with woman's 
devotion, fitted out the expeditions to search for him or his remains. When the 
gentleman entrusted with the command of the " Herald" expedition had arrived 
at Unyanyembe, halfway on his journey to Ujiji, he wrote: — "Until I hear more 
of him, or see the long-absent old man face to face, I bid you farewell; but 
wherever he is, be sure I shall not give up the chase. If alive, you shall hear 
what he has to say; if dead, I will find and bring his bones to you." To those 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. II9 

fifho neither understood the man nor the esprit de corps which gives the repre- 
Bentative of an American journal his stamp of vitality the words may have 
sounded like bombast. For answer it is sufficient to point to the columns of the 
Herald of to-day. It may have seemed to those who reasoned from a foreign 
standpoint that no man could so wrap himself up in his work as to give utter- 
ance to such words with an earnestness of purpose, backed by a life at hazard 
from day to day, They simply mistake the spirit of the American journal. II 
it were in any other quarter of the globe, by land or sea, the same enthusiasm, 
the same dash, enterprise and pluck would be exhibited, because of the race 
which he runs for his journal against equally keen-witted rivals, and not alone 
for the work itself. Enterprise, then, is the characteristic of the American 
press. It is confined to no one paper, to no one locality. Whatever the Her- 
KiSQ may have done in advancing the national reputation in this respect it is 
proud to claim, as the victor in the Olympic games of old was proud of his laurel 
crown above all gifts of gold or gems. But there is not a paper published be- 
tween the Narrows and the Golden Gate which has not its own laurek in the 
line of enterprise to glory in, and there is not one leaf of the wreath that has not 
been snatched at and wrestled for by a hundred sinewy journalistic minds. 
Thus no one journal on the Continent looks up to a permanent head of the pro- 
fession. T D-day one paper may be *' ahead on the news ;" to-morrow anothei: 
wiU snatch the chaplet from its brows. The enterprise of a contemporary in the 
late Franco- Prussian war was celebrated all over the land, as we have no doubt 
the success of the Herald will be when the Herald's special columns are pe- 
rused to-day. 

In England the London Times is looked up to all over as a Triton among the 
minnows. It is the great paper. The Daily Telegraph is the cheapest, spiciest 
paper published there ; the Standard is a careful, able Tory organ ; the Post is a 
quiet, aristocratic sheet, but the Thunderer overshadows them all. Instinct 
with the democratic spirit of our institutions, the press of America looks up to 
no lord among them. As each man bom on the soil may be President of the 
United States, so each paper — no matter what its origin or where its birthplace 
— feels within itself the possibility of precedence in- point of worth, brains and 
news over all others. We, therefore, reassert that the triumph of the Herald 
Livingstone expedition is the triumph of American journalism in its broadest 
sense. 

To point this something more, we may say that an American war correspondent 
has achieved what one of the most powerful governments in the world failed to 
accomplish. How it was done is easily told. It is probable that an English 
journal might have succeeded, if it had undertaken the task ; but, like Columbus 
with the egg, the enterprise which knocked in the end of the oval difficulty and 
made the expedition stand for itself is not a British article. 

The story of the meeting of the greatest explorer of any time with the Herald 
correspondent, by the shores of Lake Tanganyika, with one thousand miles of 
desert, jungle, jagged mountain path and sodden valley trail, peopled with 
brutal, ignorant savages, behind him, is one which will long be remembered. 



122 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



The Herald correspondent has kept his word. Happily for civilization there 
was no necessity to carry back to distant civilization the relics of her hero. He 
is alive and well and hopes to carry himself home when he has attained the ob- 
ject of his stay. In March. 1866, he started up the Rovuma, but was deserted* 
and the false Moosa spread the lying story of his death to cover his own pol- 
troonery, as was hoped against hope when the baleful tidings first came to hand. 
Tne undaunted Livingstone then set forward and reached the Chambezi River, 
which he discovered has no connection with the Portuguese Zambesi River, 
which disembogues into the Mozambique Channel opposite Madagascar. B^it 
the gem of his discovery lies in the fact that the Chambezi is the true source ol 
the Nile. He followed Its course for seven hundred miles towards its source, 
but was obliged to turn back in want, with one hundred and eighty miles unex- 
plored. The Chambezi towards its source is called the Lualaba, and is not sup- 
plied from Lake Tanganyika, and the latter lake has no effluence to the Nile, 
To solve the problem of the Lualaba and pass round the northern shore of Lake 
Tanganyika, Livingstone purposes spending two years more in Central Afric*. 
Truly this is great news, and we congratulate the world that neither the life noi 
the toil of so great a man is lost to the world, as the fates seemed so grimly to 
threaten. The story of his solitary land-finding will now be read by jojrful mil- 
lions, who, if they cannot all appreciate fully his labors, will not grudge him tht 
tribute of lasting admiration. 







iif:^m= 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THF MEETING OF LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 

rhe " Land of the Moon" — Description of the Country and People — Horrid 
Sayage Rites — Journey from Unyanyembe to Ujiji — A Wonderful Country — 
A Mighty River Spanned by a Bridge of Grass — Outwitting the Spoilers — 
Stanley's Entry Into Ujiji and Meeting with Livingstone — The Great Triumph 
of an American Newspaper. 

With the object of presenting to the curious z. fac 
simile of the famous cable telegram announcing to 
an anxious world the discovery of the great dis- 
coverer and of undertaking to preserve it in book 
form, as vividly illustrative of the important part 
borne by journalistic enterprise in opening up Africa 
to progress and civilization, that despatch has bfeen 
literally copied in the preceding chapter. But the 
full particulars of the journey of the " Herald" special 
search expedition, after leaving the main caravan 
track at Unyanyembe, are of thrilling interest. In- 
stead of going directly from the last named place to 
Ujiji, Mr. Stanley was compelled, by reason of hostile 
tribes, to make an extensive detour to the southwest, 
and then march up in a northwesterly direction, not 
very far distant from the east shore of Lake Tan- 
ganyika, But first let us have quotations from the 
letter written just before the fourth and finally suc- 
cessful journey written from Kwihara in the district 
of Unyanyembe, on the 21st of September, 1871 : 

" In the storeroom where the cumbersome moneys 

123 



124 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

of the New York Herald Expedition lie piled up 
bale upon bale, sack after sack, coil after coil, and the 
two boats, are this year's supplies sent by Dr. Kirk 
to Dr. Livingstone — seventeen bales of cloth, twelve 
boxes of wine, provisions, and little luxuries such as 
tea and coffee. When I came up with my last cara- 
van to Unyanyembe I found Livingstone's had ar- 
rived but four weeks before, or about May 23 last, 
and had put itself under charge of a half-caste called 
Thani Kati-Kati, or Thani *in the middle,' or 'be- 
tween.' Before he could get carriers he died of dys- 
entry. He was succeeded in charge by a man from 
Johanna, who, in something like a week, died of 
smallpox ; then Mirambo's war broke out, and here 
we all are, September 21, both expeditions halted. 
But not for long, let us hope, for the third time I will 
make a start the day after to-morrow. 

" Unyamwezi is a romantic name. It is * Land of 
the Moon' rendered into English — as romantic and 
sweet in Kinyamwezi as any that Stamboul or Ispa- 
han can boast is to a Turk or a Persian. The at- 
traction, however, to a European lies only in the 
name. There is nothing of the mystic, nothing of 
the poetical, nothing of the romantic, in the country 
of Unyamwezi. If I look abroad over the country I 
see the most inane and the most prosaic country one 
could ever imagine. It is the most unlikely country 
to a European for settlement ; it is so repulsive 
owing to the notoriety it has gained for its fevers. A 
white missionary would shrink back with horror at 
the thought of settling in it. An agriculturist might 
be tempted, but then there are so many better 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 25 

countries where he could do so much better he would 
be a madman If he ignored those to settle in this. 
To know the general outline and physical features of 
Unyamwezi you must take a look around from one 
of the noble coigns of vantage offered by any of 
those hills of syenite, in the debatable ground of 
Mgunda Makall, in Uyanzi. From the summit of 
one of those natural fortresses, if you look west, you 
will see Unyamwezi recede into the far, blue, mys- 
terious distance in a succession of blue waves of 
noble forest, rising and subsiding like the blue waters 
of an ocean. Such a view of Unyamwezi is inspir- 
ing ; and, were it possible for you to wing yourself 
westward on to another vantage coign, again and 
again the land undulates after the same fashion, and 
still afar off is the same azure, mystic horizon. As 
you approach Unyanyembe the scene is slightly 
changed. Hills of syenite are seen dotting the vast 
prospect, like islands in a sea, presenting in their 
external appearance, to an imaginative eye, rude imi- 
tations of castellated fortresses and embattled towers. 
A nearer view of these hills discloses the denuded 
rock, disintegrated masses standing on end, boulder 
resting upon boulder, or an immense towering rock, 
tinted with the sombre color age paints in these lands. 
Around these rocky hills stretch the cultivated fields 
of the Wanyamwezi — fields of tall maize, ot holcus 
sorghum, of millet, of vetches, &c. — among which you 
may discern the patches devoted to the cultivation of 
sweet potatoes and manioc, and pasture lands where 
browse the hump-shouldered cattle of Africa, flocks 
of goats and sheep. This is the scene which attracts 



126 Stanley's story; or, 

the eye, and is accepted as promising relief after the 
wearisome marching through the thorny jungle plains 
of Ugogo, the primeval forests of Uyanzi, the dim 
plains of Tura and Rubuga, and when we have 
emerged from the twilight shades of Kigwa. No 
caravan or expedition views it unwelcomed by song 
and tumultuous chorus, for rest is at hand. It is only 
after a long halt that one begins to weary of Unyan- 
yembe, the principal district of Unyamwezi. It is 
only when one has been stricken down almost to the 
grave by the fatal chilly winds which blow from the 
heights of the mountains of Usagara, that one be- 
gins to criticize the beauty which at first captivated. 
It is found, then, that though the land is fair to look 
upon ; that though we rejoiced at the sight of its 
grand plains, at its fertile and glowing fields, at sight 
of the roving herds, which promised us abundance of 
milk and cream — that it is one of the most deadly 
countries in Africa ; that its fevers, remittent and in- 
termittent, are unequalled in their severity. 

" Unyamwezi, or the Land of the Moon — from U 
(country) nya (of the) mwezi (moon) — extends over 
three degrees of latitude in length and about two 
and a half degrees of longitude in breadth. Its 
principal districts are Unyanyembe, Ugunda, Ugara, 
Tura, Rubuga, Kigwa, Usagazi and Uyoweh. Each 
district has its own chief prince, king, or mtemt, as 
he is called in Kinyamwezi. Unyanyembe, however 
is the principal district, and its king, Mkasiwa, is 
generally considered to be the most important per- 
son in Unyamwezi. The other kings often go to war 
against him, and Mkasiwa often gets the worst of it; 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 1 27 

as, for instance, in the present war between the King 
of Uyoweh (Mirambo) and Mkasiwa. 

" A.11 this vast country is drained by two rivers — 
the Northern and Southern Gombe, which empty 
into the Malagarazi River, and thence into Lake 
Tanganyika. On the east Unyamwezi is bounded by 
the wilderness of Mgunda MakaH and Ukmibu, on 
the south by Urori and Ukonongo, on the west by 
Ukawendi and Uvniza, on the north by several small 
countries and the Ukereweh Lake. Were one to 
ascend by a balloon and scan the whole of Unyam- 
wezi he would have a view of one great forest 
broken here and there by the little clearings around 
the villages, especially in and around Unyanyembe." 

On account of troubles in the country, the Search 
Expedition was detained some three months in Kwi- 
hara. Mr. Stanley lived in quite a large, strong house 
for that country, consisting of a main room and bath- 
room, built of mud about three feet thick. He thus 
describes " the daily round" : 

"In the early morning, generally about half-past 
five or six o'clock, I begin to stir the soldiers up 
sometimes with a long bamboo, for you know they 
are such hard sleepers they require a good deal of 
poking. Bombay has his orders given him, and 
Feragji, the cook, who, long ago warned by the noise 
I make when I rouse up, is told in unmistakable tones 
to bring * chai' (tea), for I am like an old woman, I 
love tea very much, and can take a quart and a half 
without any inconvenience. Kalulu, a boy of seven 
all the way from Cazembe's country, is my waiter and 
chief butler. He understands my ways and mode of 



128 Stanley's story; or, 

life exactly. Some weeks ago he ousted Selim from 
the post of chief butler by sheer diligence and 
smartness. Selim, the Arab boy, cannot wait at table; 
Kalulu — young antelope — is frisky. I have but to 
express a wish and it is gratified. He is a perfect 
Mercury, though a marvellously black one. Tea over, 
Kalulu clears the dishes and retires under the kitchen 
shed, where, if I have a curiosity to know what he is 
doing, he may be seen with his tongue in the tea 
cup licking up the sugar that was left in it and look- 
ing very much as if he would like to eat the cup for 
the sake of the divine element it has so often con- 
tained. If I have any calls to make this is generally 
the hour ; if there are none to make I go on the 
piazza and subside quietly on my bearskin to dream 
may be, of that far off land I call my own, or to gaze 
towards Tabora, the Kaze of Burton and Speke, 
though why they should have called it Kaze as yet I 
have not been able to find out ; or to look towards 
lofty Zimbili and wonder why the Arabs, at such a 
crisis as the present, do not remove their goods and 
chattels to the summit of that natural fortress. But 
dreaming and wondering and thinking and marvelling 
are too hard for me ; so I make some ethnological 
notes and polish up a little my geographical knowl- 
edge of Central Africa. 

" I have to greet about four hundred and ninety- 
nine people of all sorts with the salutation *Yambo, 
This 'Yambo' is a great word. It may mean 'How 
do you do ?' ' How are you ?' * Thy health ?' The 
answer to it is * Yambo ! ' or * Yambo Sana ! ' (How 
are you ; quite well ?) The Kinyamwezi — the Ian- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 29 

guage of the Wanyamwezi — of it is * Moholo ' and the 
answer is ' Moholo/ The Arabs, when they call, if 
they do not give the Arabic * Spal-kher,' give you the 
greeting * Yambo;' and I have to say * Yambo.' And, 
in order to show my gratitude to them, I emphasize 
it with 'Yambo Sana! Sana! Sana?' (Are you 
well? Quite well, quite, quite well ?) And if they re- 
peat the words I am more than doubly grateful, and 
invite them to a seat on the bearskin. This bearskin 
of mine is the evidence of my respectability, and if 
we are short of common-place topics we invariably 
refer to the bearskin, where there is room for much 
discussion. 

" Having disposed of my usual number of * Yambos 
for the morning I begin to feel * peckish,' as the sea 
skipper says, and Feragji, the cook, and youthful 
Kalulu, the chief butler, are again called and told to 
bring ' chukula' — food. This is the breakfast put 
down on the table at the hour of ten punctually every 
morning: — Tea (ugali) a native porridge made out 
of the flour of dourra, holcus sorghum, or matama, as 
it is called here ; a dish of rice and curry. Unyan- 
yembe is famous for its rice, fried goat's meat, stewed 
goat's meat, roast goat's meat, a dish of sweet pota- 
toes, a few ' slapjacks' or specimens of the abortive 
efforts of Feragji to make dampers or pancakes, to 
be eaten with honey But neither Feragji's culinary 
skill nor Kalulu's readiness to wait on me can tempt 
me to eat. I have long ago eschewed food, and only 
drink tea, milk and yaourt — Turkish word for * clab- 
ber' or clotted milk. 

"After breakfast the soldiers are called, and to- 



130 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

gether we begin to pack the bales of cloth, string 
beads and apportion the several loads which the es- 
cort must carry to Ujiji some way or another. Car- 
riers come to test the weight of the loads and 
to inquire about the inducements offered by the 
'Muzungu.' The inducements are in the shape of so 
many pieces of cloth, four yards long, and I offered 
double what any Arab ever offered. Some are en- 
gaged at once, others say they will call again, but 
they nevfer do, and it is of no use to expect them 
when there is war, for they are the cowardliest peo- 
ple under the sun. 

"Since we are going to make forced marches I 
must not overload my armed escort, or we shall be 
in a pretty mess two or three days after we start ; 
so I am obliged to reduce all loads by twenty pounds, 
to examine my kit and personal baggage carefully, 
and put aside anything that is not actually and press- 
ingly needed ; all the amunition is to be left behind 
except one hundred rounds to each man. No one 
must fire a shot without permission, or waste his am- 
munition in any way, under penalty of a heavy fine 
for every charge of powder wasted. These things 
require time and thought, for the Herald Expedi- 
tion has a long and far journey to make. It intends 
to take a new road — a road with which few Arabs 
are acquainted — despite all that Skeikh, the son of 
Nasib, can say against the project. 

" It is now the dinner hour, seven P. M. Ferraj ji 
has spread himself out, as they say. He has all sorts 
of little fixings ready, such as Indigestible dampers, 
the everlasting ngali, or porridge, the sweet potatoes, 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 13! 

rhicken, and roast quarter of a goat ; and lastly, a 
custard, or something just as good, made out ol 
plantains. At eight P. M. the table is cleared, the 
candles are lit, pipes are brought out, and Shaw, my 
white man is invited to talk. But poor Shaw is sick 
and has not a grain or spirit of energy left in him. 
All I can do or say does not cheer him up in the 
least. He hangs down his head, and with many a 
sigh declares his inability to proceed with me to 
Ujiji." 

On the 15th of July, war was declared between 
Mirambo and the Arabs. In this war, it will be re- 
collected, Mr. Stanley with his men took part. The 
result was disaster, ensuing from Mirambo s strata- 
gem, as so graphically related in the cable telegram. 
The continuation of this war is thus described : 

" Mirambo, with one thousand guns, and one thou- 
sand five hundred Watuda's, his allies, invaded Un- 
yanyembe, and pitched their camp insolently within 
view of the Arab capital of Tabora. Tabora is a 
large collection of Arab settlements, or tembes, as 
they are called here. Each Arab house is isolated 
by the fence which surrounds it. Not one is more 
than two hundred yards off from the other, and each 
has its own name, known, however, to but few out- 
siders. South by west from Tabora, at the distance 
of a mile and a half, and in view of Tarbora is Kwi- 
hara, where the Herald expedition has its quarters. 
Kwihara is a Kinyamwezi word, meaning the middle 
of the cultivation. There is quite a large settlement 
of Arabs here — second only to Tabora. But it was 
Tabora and not Kwihara that Mirambo, his forest 



132 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

thieves and the Watula came to attack. Khamis bin 
Abdallah, the bravest Trojan of them all — of all the 
Arabs— went out to meet Mirambo with eighty armed 
slaves and five Arabs, one of whom was his little son, 
Khamis. As Khamis bin Abdallah's party came in 
sight of Mirambo's people Khamis' slaves deserted 
him, and Mirambo then gave the order to surround 
the Arabs and press on them. This little group in 
this manner became the targets for about one thou- 
sand guns, and of course in a second or so were all 
dead — not, however, without having exhibited re- 
markable traits of character. 

"They had barely died before the medicine men came 
up, and with their scalpels had skinned their faces and 
their abdominal portions, and had extracted what they 
^all 'mafuta,' or fat, and their genital organs. With this 
matter which they had extracted from the dead bod- 
ies the native doctors or waganga made a powerful 
medicine, by boiling it in large earthen pots for many 
hours, with many incantations and shakings of the 
wonderful gourd that was only filled with pebbles. 
This medicine was drunk that evening with great 
ceremony, with dances, drum beating and general 
fervor of heart. 

"Khamis bin Abdallah dead, Mirambo gave his orders 
to plunder, kill, burn, and destroy, and they went at 
it with a will. When I saw the fugitives from Tabo- 
ra coming by the hundred to our quiet valley of 
Kwihara I began to think the matter serious and 
began my operations for defence. First of all, how- 
ever, 3 lofty bamboo pole was procured and planted 
on the roof ol our fortlet, and the American flag was 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 33 

run up, where it waved joyously and grandly, an omen 
to all fugitives and their hunters. 

" All night we stood guard ; the suburbs of Tabora 
were in flames ; all the Wanyamwezi and Wanguana 
houses were destroyed, and the fine house of Abid 
bin Sulemian had been ransacked and then commit- 
ted to the flames, and Mirambo boasted that 'to-mor- 
row' Kwihara should share the fate of Tabora, and 
there was a rumor that that night the Arabs were 
going to start for the coast. But the morning came, 
and Mirambo departed with the ivory and cattle he 
had captured, and the people of Kwihara and Ta- 
bora breathed freer. 

" And now I am going to say farewell to Unyan- 
yembe for a while. I shall never help an Arab again. 
He is no fighting man, or I should say, does not 
know how to fight, but knows personally how to die. 
They will not conquer Mirambo within a year, and I 
cannot stop to see that play out. There is a good 
old man waiting for me somewhere, and that impels 
me on. There is a journal afar off which expects me 
to do my duty, and I must do it. Goodby ; I am off 
the day after to-morrow for Ujiji ; then, perhaps, the 
Congo River." 

After this followed a number of telegrams to the 
" Herald" from the expedition, but their substance 
has been given in what has preceded, to show the 
general outline of explorations up to the time of the 
meeting of Livingstone and Stanley at Ujlji. There 
are, however, but few accounts of travel more inter- 
esting and valuable than the letter to the " Herald** 
narrating the events of the journey from Unyan- 



134 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

yembe to Ujiji^ and the meeting with Livingstone. 
The greater portion of this remarkable narrative is 
appended : 

" Bunder, Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, ) 
" Central Africa, November 23, 1871. j 

" Only two months gone, and what a change in my 
feelings ! But two months ago, what a peevish, fret- 
ful soul was mine ! What a hopeless prospect pre- 
sented itself before your correspondent ! Arabs 
vowing that I would never behold the Tanganyika ; 
Sheikh, the son of Nasib, declaring me a madman to 
his fellows because I would not heed his words. 
My men deserting, my servants whining day by 
day, and my white man endeavoring to impress me 
with the belief that we were all doomed men ! And 
the only answer to it all is, Livingstone, the hero 
traveller, is alongside of me, writing as hard as he 
can to his friends in England, India, and America, 
and I am quite safe and sound in health and limb. 

" September 23 I left Unyanyembe, driving before 
me fifty well-armed black men, loaded with the goods 
of the expedition, and dragging after me one white 
man. Once away from the hateful valley of Kwiharai 
my enthusiasm for my work rose as newborn as when 
I left the coast. But my enthusiasm was shortlived, 
for before reaching camp I was almost delirious with 
fever. When I had arrived, burning with fever, my 
pulse bounding many degrees too fast and my temper 
made more acrimonious by my sufferings, I found the 
camp almost deserted. The men as soon as they had 
arrived at Mkwenkwe, the village agreed upon, had 
hurried back to Kwihara. Livingstone*s letter- car riei 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 35 

had not made his appearance — it was an abandoned 
camp. I instantly dispatched six of the best of those 
who had refused to return to ask Sheikh, the son of 
Nasib, to lend or sell me the longest slave chain he 
had, then to hunt up the runaways and bring them 
back to camp bound, and promised them that for 
every head captured they should have a bran new 
cloth. 

" Next morning fourteen out of twenty of those 
who had deserted back to their wives and huts (as 
is generally the custom) had reappeared, and, as the 
fever had left me, I only lectured them, and they 
gave me their promise not to desert me again under 
any circumstances. Livingstone's messenger had 
passed the night in bonds, because he had resolutely 
refused to come. I unloosed him and gave him a 
paternal lecture, painting in glowing colors the bene- 
fits he would receive If he came along quietly and 
the horrible punishment of being chained up until I 
reached Ujiji if he was still resolved not to come. 
Kaif Halleck' Arabic for ' How do you do ?' melted, 
and readily gave me his promise to come and obey 
me as he would his own master — Livingstone — until 
we should see him, 'which Inshallah we shall ! Please 
God, please God, we shall,' I replied, * and you wilJ 
be no loser.' During the day my soldiers had cap- 
tured the others, and as they all promised obedience 
and fidelity in future, they escaped punishment. 

" It is possible for any of- your readers so disposed 
to construct a map of the road on which the * Her- 
ald' expedition was now journeying, if they draw a 
line 150 miles long south by west from Unyanyembe, 



136 Stanley's story; or, 

then 150 miles west northwest, then ninety miles 
north, half east, then seventy miles west by north, 
and that will take them to Ujiji. 

" We were about entering the immense forest that 
separates Unyanyembe from the district of Ugunda, 
In lengthy undulating waves the land stretches be- 
fore us — the new land which no European knew, the 
unknown, mystic land. The view which the eyes 
hurry to embrace as we ascend some ridge higher 
than another is one of the most disheartening that 
can be conceived. Away, one beyond another, wave 
the lengthy rectilinear ridges, clad in the same garb 
of color. Woods, woods, woods, forests, leafy 
branches, green and sere, yellow and dark red and 
purple, then an indefinable ocean, bluer than the blue- 
est sky. The horizon all around shows the same 
scene — a sky dropping into the depths of the endless 
forest, with but two or three tall giants of the forest 
higher than their neighbors, which are conspicuous in 
their outlines, to break the monotony of the scene. 
On no one point do our eyes rest with pleasure ; they 
have viewed the same outlines, the same forest and 
the same horizon day after day, week after week ; 
and again, like Noah's dove from wandering over a 
world without a halting place, return wearied with the 
search, 

"It takes seven hours to traverse the forest be- 
tween Kigandu and Ugunda, when we come to the 
capital of the new district, wherein one may laugh at 
Mirambo and his forest thieves. At least the Sultan, 
or Lord of Ugunda, feels in a laughing mood while 
in his strong stockade, should one but bint to him 




SKETCH OF AN AFRICAN FOREST SCENE. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 37 

that Mirambo might come to settle up the long debt 
that Chieftain owes him, for defeating him the last 
time — a year ago — he attempted to storm his place. 
And well may the Sultan laugh at him, and all others 
which the hospitable Chief may permit to reside 
within, for it is the strongest place — except Simba- 
Moeni and Kwikuru, in Unyanyembe — I have as yet 
seen in Africa. Having arrived safely at Ugunda we 
may now proceed on our journey fearless of Mirambo, 
though he has attacked places four days south of 
this ; but as he has already at a former time felt the 
power of the Wanyamwezi of Ugunda, he will not 
venture again in a hurry. On the sixth day of our 
departure from Unyanyembe we continued our jour- 
ney south. Three long marches, under a hot sufk 
through jungly plains, heat-cracked expanses ot 
prairie land, through young forests, haunted by the 
tsetse and sword flies, considered fatal to cattle, 
brought us to the gates of a village called Manyara, 
whose chief was determined not to let us in nor sell 
as a grain of corn, because he had never seen a white 
man before, and he must know all about this wonder- 
ful specimen of humanity before he would allow us 
to pass through his country. Having arrived at the 
khambi, or camp, I despatched Bombay with a pro- 
pitiating gift of cloth to the Chief — a gift at once so 
handsome and so munificent, consisting of no less 
than two royal cloths and three common dotis, that 
the Chief surrendered at once, declaring that the 
white man was a superior being to any he had ever 
seen. 'Surely,' said he, 'he must have a friend; 
otherwise how came he to send me such fine cloths? 



13S Stanley's story; or, 

Tell the white man that I shall come and see him. 
Permission was at once given to his people to sell us 
as much corn as we needed. We had barely finished 
distributing five days' rations to each man when the 
Chief was announced. 

" Gunbearers, twenty in number, preceded him, and 
thirty spearmen followed him, and behind these came 
eight or ten men loaded with gifts of honey, native 
beer, holcus sorghum, beans, and maize. I at once 
advanced and invited the Chief to my tent, which had 
undergone some alterations, that I might honor him 
as much as lay in my power. Ma-manyara was a tall, 
stalwart man, with a very pleasing face. He carried 
in his hand a couple of spears, and, with the excep- 
tion of a well-worn barsati around his loins, he was 
naked. Three of his principal men and himself were 
invited to seat themselves on my Persian carpet. The 
revolvers and Winchester's repeating rifles were 
things so wonderful that to attempt to give you any 
idea of how awe-struck he and his men were would 
task my powers. My medicine chest was opened 
next, and I uncorked a small phial of medicinal brandy 
and gave each a teaspoonful. Suffice it that I made 
myself so popular with Ma-manyara and his people 
that they will not forget me in a hurry. 

" Leaving kind and hospitable Ma-manyara, after a 
four hours' march we came to the banks of the 
Gombe Nullah, not the one which Burton, Speke, and 
Grant have described, for the Gombe which I mean 
is about one hundred and twenty-five miles south of 
the Northern Gombe. The glorious park land spread- 
ing out north and south of the Southern Gombe is a 
14 



^'^^ff!!^?"fl Mffl'lPff 'I'^Hi'^'^^'^w^ 




iiiiiiii 



{W^ mM^mmMmMmmMm^mmmmmmM 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 39 

hunter's paradise. It is full of game of all kinds- - 
herds of buffalo, giraffe, zebra, pallah, water buck, 
springbok, gemsbok, blackbuck, and kudu, besides 
several eland, warthog, or wild boar, and hundreds of 
the smaller antelope. We saw all these in one day, 
and at niorht heard the lions roar and the low of the 
hippopotamus. I halted here three days to shoot, 
and there is no occasion to boast of what I shot, con- 
sidering the myiiads of game I saw at every step I 
took. Not half the animals shot here by myself and 
men were made use of Two buffaloes and one kudu 
were brought to camp the first day, besides a- wild 
boar, which my mess finished up in one night. My 
boy gun-bearers sat up the whole night eating boar 
meat, and until I went to sleep I could hear the buf- 
falo meat sizzing over the fires as the Islamized sol- 
diers prepared it for the road. 

" From Manyara to Marefu, in Ukonongo, are five 
days' marches. It is an uninhabited forest now, and 
is about eighty miles in length. Clumps of forest 
and dense islets of jungle dot plains which separate 
the forests proper. It is monotonous owing to the 
sameness of the scenes. And throughout this length 
of eighty miles there is nothing to catch a man's eye 
in search of the picturesque or novel save the Gombe's 
pools, with their amphibious inhabitants, and the va 
riety of noble game which inhabit the forests and 
plain. A travelling band of Wakonongo, bound to 
Ukonongo from Manyara, prayed to have our escort, 
which was readily granted. They were famous 
foresters, who knew the various fruits fit to eat ; who 
knew the cry of the honey-bird, and could follow it to 



140 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

the treasure of honey which it wished to show its hu- 
man friends. It is a pretty bird, not much larger than 
a wren, and, * tweet-tweet,' it immediately cries when 
it sees a human being. It becomes very busy all at 
once, hops and skips, and flies from branch to branch 
with marvellous celerity. The traveller lifts up his 
eyes, beholds the tiny little bird, hopping about, and 
hears its sweet call — ' tweet-tweet-tweet.' If he is a 
Makonongo he follows it. Away flies the bird on to 
another tree, springs to another branch nearer to the 
lagging man as if to say, * Shall I, must I come and 
fetch you ?' but assured by his advance, away again 
to another tree, coquets about, and tweets his call 
rapidly ; sometimes more earnest and loud, as if chid- 
ing him for being so slow ; then off" again, until at last 
the treasure is found and secured. And as he is a 
very busy little bird, while the man secures his treas- 
ure of honey, he plumes himself, ready for another 
flight and to discover another treasure. Every even- 
ing the Makonongo brought us stores of beautiful red 
and white honey, which is only to be secured in the 
dry season. Over pancakes and fritters the honey is 
very excellent ; but it is apt to disturb the stomach. 
I seldom rejoiced in its sweetness without suffering 
some indisposition afterwards. 

" Arriving at Marefu, we overtook an embassy from 
the Arabs at Unyanyembe to the Chief of the fero- 
cious Watuta, who live a month's march southwest 
of this frontier village of Ukonongo. Old Hassan, 
the Mseguhha, was the person who held the honor- 
able post of Chief of the embassy, who had volun- 
teered to conduct the negotiations which were to se- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. I4I 

cure the Watutas services against Mirambo, the 
dreaded Chief of Uyoweh. Assured by the Arabs 
that there was no danger, and having received the 
sum of forty dollars for his services, he had gone on, 
sanguine of success, and had arrived at Marefu, where 
we overtook him. 

"We left old Hassan the next day, for the prosecu 
tion of the work of the expedition, feeling much hap- 
pier than we had felt for many a day. Desertions 
had now ceased, and there remained in chains but 
one incorrigible, whom I had apprehended twice after 
twice deserting. Bombay and his sympathizers were 
now beginning to perceive that after all there was 
not much danger — at least not as much as the Arabs 
desired us to believe — and he was heard expressing 
his belief in his broken English that I would ' catch 
the Tanganyika after all,' and the standing joke was 
now that we could smell the fish of the Tanganyika 
Lake, and that we could not be far from it. New 
scenes also met the eye. Here and there were up- 
heaved above the tree tops sugar-loaf hills, and, 
darkly blue, west of us loomed up a noble ridge of 
hills which formed the boundary between Kamir- 
ambo's territory and that of Utende. Elephant 
tracks became numerous, and buffalo met the delight- 
ed eyes everywhere. Crossing the mountainous ridge 
of Mwaru, with its lengthy slope slowly descending 
westward, the vegetation became more varied and 
the outlines of the land before us became more pic- 
turesque. We became sated with the varieties ol 
novel fruit which we saw hanging thickly on trees. 
There was the mbembu, with the taste of an over 



142 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

ripe peach; the tamarind pod and beans, with theii 
grateful acidity, resembling somewhat the lemon in 
its flavor. The matonga, or nux vomica, was wel- 
come, and the lucious singwe, the plum of Africa, 
was the most delicious of all. There were wild plums 
like our own, and grapes unpicked long past their 
season, and beyond eating. Guinea fowls, the moor- 
hen, ptarmigans and ducks supplied our table ; and 
often the lump of a buffalo or an extravagant piece 
of venison filled our camp kettles. My health was 
firmly established. The faster we prosecuted our 
journey the better I felt. I had long bidden adieu 
to the nauseous calomel and rhubarb compounds, and 
had become quite a stranger to quinine. There was 
only one drawback to it all, and that was the feeble 
health of the Arab boy Selim, who was suffering from 
an attack of acute dysentery, caused by inordinate 
drinking of the bad water of the pools at which we 
had camped between Manyara and Mrera. But ju- 
dicious attendance and Dover's powders brought the 
bqy round again. 

" Mrera, in Ukonongo, nine days southwest of th< 
Gombe Mellah, brought to our minds the jungle 
habitats of the Wawkwere on the coast, and an omi- 
nous sight to travellers were the bleached skulls ol 
men which adorned the tops of tall poles before the 
gates of the village. The Sultan of Mrera and my- 
self became fast friends after he had tasted of my 
liberality. 

" After a halt of three days at this village, for the 
benefit of the Arab boy, we proceeded westerly, with 
the understanding that we should behold the water? 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 43 

of the Tanganyika within ten days. Traversi ng a dense 
forest of young trees, we came to a plain dotted with 
scores of ant hills. Their uniform height (about seven 
feet high above the plain) leads me to believe that 
they were constructed during an unusually wet sea- 
son, and when the country was inundated for a long 
time in consequence. The surface of the plain also 
bore the appearance of being subject to such inun- 
dations. Beyond this plain about four miles we came 
to a running stream of purest water — a most welcome 
sight after so many months spent by brackish pools 
and nauseous swamps. Crossing the stream, which 
ran northwest, we immediately ascended a steep and 
lofty ridge, whence we obtained a view of grand and 
imposing mountains, of isolated hills, rising sheer to 
great heights from a plain stretching far into the 
heart of Ufipa, cut up by numerous streams flowing 
into the Rungwa River, which during the rainy sea- 
son overflows this plain and forms the lagoon set 
down by Speke as the Rikwa. We continued still 
westward, crossing many a broad stretch of marsh 
and oozy bed of mellahs, whence rose the streams 
that formed the Rungwa some forty miles south. 

"At a camping place beyond Mrera we heard 
enough from some natives who visited us to assure 
us that we were rushing to our destruction if we still 
kept westward. After receiving hints of how to 
evade the war-stricken country in our front, we took 
a road leading north-northwest. While continuing 
on this course we crossed streams running to the. 
Rungwa south and others running directly north to 

the Malagarazi, from cither side of a lengthy ridge 
12 



144 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

which served to separate the country of Unyamwezi 

from Ukawendi. We were also attracted for the 
first time by the lofty and tapering moule tree, used 
on the Tanganyika Lake for the canoes of the na- 
tives, who dwell on its shores. The banks of the 
numerous streams are lined with dense growths of 
these shapely trees, as well as of sycamore, and gi- 
gantic tamarinds, which rivalled the largest sycamore 
in their breadth of shade. The undergrowth of 
bushes and tall grass, dense and impenetrable, likely 
resorts of leopard and lion and wild boar were enough 
to appal the stoutest heart. One of my donkeys 
while being driven to water along a narrow path, 
hedged by the awesome brake on either side, was at- 
tacked by a leopard, which fastened its fangs in the 
poor animal's neck, and it would have made short 
work of it had not its companions set up such a bray- 
ing chorus as might well have terrified a score of 
leopards. And that same night, while encamped 
contiguous to that limpid stream of Mtambu, with 
that lofty line of enormous trees rising dark and 
awful above us, the lions issued from the brakes be- 
neath and prowled about the well-set bush defence of 
our camp, venting their fearful clamor without inter- 
mission until morning. 

" Our camps by these thick belts of timber, peo- 
pled as they were with wild beasts, my men never 
fancied. But Southern Ukawendi, with its fair, lovely 
valleys and pellucid streams nourishing vegetation to 
extravagant growth, density and height, Is infested 
with troubles of this kind. And it is probable, from 
the spread of this report among the natives, that this 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 45 

is the cause of the scant population of one of the 
loveliest countries Africa can boast. The fairest of 
California scenery cannot excel, though it may equal, 
such scenes as Ukawendi can boast of, and yet a 
land as large as the State of New York is almost un- 
inhabited. Days and days one may travel through 
primeval forests, now ascending ridges overlooking 
broad, well watered valleys, with belts of valuable 
timber crowning the banks of the rivers, and behold 
exquisite bits of scenery — wild, fantastic, picturesque 
and pretty — all within the scope of vision whichever 
way one may turn. And to crown the glories of this 
lovely portion of earth, underneath the surface. but a 
few feet is one mass of iron ore, extending across 
three degrees of longitude and nearly four of latitude, 
cropping out at intervals, so that the traveller cannot 
remain ignorant of the wealth lying beneath. 

" What wild and ambitious projects fill a man's 
brain as he looks over the forgotten and unpeopled 
country, containing in its bosom such store of wealth, 
and with such an expanse of fertile soil, capable of 
sustaining millions ! What a settlement one could 
have in this valley ! See, it is broad enough to sup- 
port a large population ! Fancy a church spire rising 
where that tamarind rears its dark crown of foliage 
and think how well a score or so of pretty cottages 
would look instead of those thorn clumps and gum 
trees ! Fancy this lovely valley teeming with herds 
of cattle and fields of corn, spreading to the right 
and left of this stream ! How much better would 
such a state become this valley, rather than its pres- 
ent deserted and wild aspect ! But be hopeful The 



146 Stanley's story; or, 

day will come and a future year will see it, when hap- 
pier lands have become crowded and nations have be- 
come so overgrown that they have no room to turn 
about. It only needs an Abraham or a Lot, an 
Alaric or an Attila to lead their hosts to this land, 
which, perhaps, has been wisely reserved for such a 
time. 

" After the warning so kindly given by the natives 
soon after leaving Mrera, in Ukonongo, five days' 
marches brought us to Mrera, in the district of Rus- 
awa, in Ukawendi. Arriving here, we questioned the 
natives as to the best course to pursue — should we 
make direct for the Tanganyika or go north to the 
Malagarazi River? They advised us to the latter 
course, though no Arab had ever taken it. Two days 
through the forest, they said, would enable us to 
reach the Malagarazi. The guide, who had by this 
forgotten our disagreement, endorsed this opinion, as 
beyond the Malagarazi he was sufficiently qualified 
to show the way. We laid in a stock of four days* 
provisions against contingencies, and bidding farewell 
to the hospitable people of Rusawa, continued our 
journey northward. 

" The scenery was getting more sublime every day 
as we advanced northward, even approaching the 
terrible. We seemed to have left the monotony of 
a desert for the wild, picturesque scenery ot Abys- 
sinia and the terrible mountains of the Sierra Neva- 
das. I named one tabular mountain, which recalled 
memories of the Abyssinian campaign, Magdala, and 
as I gave it a place on my chart it became of great 
jse to me, as it rose so prominently into view that I 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 47 

was enabled to lay down our route pretty accurately 
The four days' provisions we had taken with us were 
soon consumed, and still we were far from the Mala- 
garazi River. Though we eked out my own stores 
with great care, as shipwrecked men at sea, these also 
gave out on the sixth day, and still the Malagarazi 
was not in sight. The country was getting more dif- 
licult for travel, owing to the numerous ascents and 
descents we had to make in the course of a day's 
march. Bleached and bare, it was cut up by a thou- 
sand deep ravines and intersected by a thousand dry 
water courses whose beds were filled with immense 
sandstone rocks and boulders washed away from the 
great heights which rose above us on every side. We 
were not protected now by the shades of the forest, 
and the heat became excessive and water became 
scarce. But we still held on our way, hoping that 
each day's march would bring us in sight of the long- 
looked-for and much-desired Malagarazi. Fortunately 
we had filled our bags and baskets with the fores* 
peaches with which the forests of Rusawa had sup- 
plied us, and these sustained us in this extremity. 

** Proceeding on our road on the eighth day every 
thing we saw tended to confirm us in the belief that 
food was at hand. After travelling two hours, still 
descending rapidly towards a deep basin which we 
saw, the foremost of the expedition halted, attracted 
by the sight of a village situated on a table-topped 
mountain on our right. The guide told us it must be 
that of the son of Nzogera, of Uvinza. We fol- 
lowed a road leading to the foot of the mountain, and 
camped on the edge of an extensive morass. Though 



148 Stanley's story; or, 

we fired guns to announce our arrival, it was unneces- 
sary, for the people were already hurrying to our 
camps to inquire about our intentions. The explan- 
ation was satisfactory, but they said that they had 
taken us to be enemies, few friends having ever come 
along our road. In a few minutes there was an 
abundance of meat and grain in the camp, and the 
men's jaws were busy in the process of mastication. 
" During the whole of the afternoon we were en- 
gaged upon the terms Nzogera's son exacted for the 
privilege of passing through his country. We found 
him to be the first of a tribute-taking tribe which 
subsequently made much havoc in the bales of the 
expedition. Seven and a half doti of cloth were 
what we were compelled to pay, whether we returned 
or proceeded on our way. After a day's halt we pro- 
ceeded under the guidance of two men granted to me 
as qualified to show the way to the Malagarazi 
River. We had to go east-northeast for a consider- 
able time in order to avoid the morass that lay di- 
rectly across the country that intervened between the 
triangular mountain on whose top Nzogera's son 
dwelt. This marsh drains three extensive ranges of 
mountains which, starting from the westward, separ- 
ated only by two deep chasms from each other, run 
at wide angles — one southeast, one northeast, and 
the other northwest. From a distance this marsh 
looks fair enough; stately trees at intervals rise 
seemingly from its bosom, and between them cne 
catches glimpses of a lovely champaign, bounded by 
perperdlcular mountains, in the far distance. After 
a wide detour we struck straight for this marsh, which 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 49 

presented to us another novelty in the watershed oi 
the Tanganyika. 

" Fancy a river broad as the Hudson at Albany, 
though not near so deep or swift, covered over by 
water plants and grasses, which had become so inter- 
woven and netted together as to form a bridge 
covering its entire length and breadth, under which 
the river flowed calm and deep below. It was over 
this natural bridge we were expected to cross. Add- 
ing to the tremor which one naturally felt at having 
to cross this frail bridge was the tradition that only 
a few yards higher up an Arab and his donkey, thirty- 
five slaves and sixteen tusks of ivory had suddenly 
sunk forever out of sight. As one-half of our little 
column had already arrived at the centre, we on the 
shore could see the network of grass waving on 
either side, in one place like to the swell of a sea af- 
ter a storm, and in another like a small lake violently 
ruffled by a squall. Hundreds of yards away from 
them it ruffled, and undulated one wave after another. 
As we all got on it we perceived it to sink about a 
foot, forcing the water on which it rested into the 
grassy channel formed by our footsteps. One of my 
donkeys broke through, and it required the united 
strength of ten men to extricate him. The aggre- 
gate weight of the donkey and men caused that por- 
tion of the bridge on which they stood to sink about 
two feet and a circular pool of water was formed, 
and I expected every minute to see them suddenly 
sink out of sight. Fortunately we managed to cross 
the treacherous bridge without accident. 

"Arriving on the other side, we struck north, pass- 



ISO STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

ing through a delightful country, In every way suit- 
able for agricultural settlements or happy mission 
stations. The primitive rock began to show Itself 
anew In eccentric clusters, as a flat-topped rock, on 
which the villages of the Wavlnza were seen and 
where the natives prided themselves on their security 
and conducted themselves accordingly, ever Insolent 
and forward. We were halted every two or three 
miles by the demand for tribute, which we did not, 
because we could not, pay. 

" On the second day after leaving Nzogera's son we 
commenced a series of descents, the deep valleys on 
each side of us astonishing us by their profundity, 
and the dark gloom prevailing below, amid their won- 
derful dense forests of tall trees, and glimpses oi 
plains beyond, Invited sincere admiration. In about 
a couple of hours we discovered the river we were 
looking for below, at the distance of a mile, running 
like a silver vein through a broad valley. Halting at 
Klala's, eldest son of Nzogera, the principal Sultan 
of Uvinza, we waited an hour to see on what terms 
he would ferry us over the Malagarazi. As we could 
not come to a definite conclusion respecting them we 
were obliged to camp in his village. 

" Until three o'clock P. M. the following day con> 
tinued the negotiations for ferrying us across the 
Malagarazi, consisting of arguments, threats, quarrels, 
loud shouting and stormy debate on both sides. Fi- 
nally, six doti and ten fundo of saml-sami beads were 
agreed upon. After which we marched to the ferry, 
distant half a mile from the scene of so much conten- 
tion. The river at this place was not more than 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. I5I 

thirty yards broad, sluggish and deep ; yet I would 
prefer attempting to cross the Mississippi by swim- 
ming rather than the Malagarazi. Such another river 
for the crocodiles, cruel as death, I cannot conceive. 
Their long, tapering heads dotted the river every- 
where, and though I amused myself, pelting them 
with two-ounce balls, I made no effect on their num- 
bers. Two canoes had discharged their live cargo on 
the other side of the river when the story of Captain 
Burton's passage across the Malagarazi higher up 
was brought vividly to my mind by the extortions 
which Mutware now commenced. 

" Two marches from Malagarazi brought us to 
Uhha. Kawanga was the first place in Uhha where 
we halted. It is the village where resides the first 
mutware, or chief, to whom caravans have to pay 
tribute. To this man we paid twelve and a half doti, 
upon the understanding that we would have to pay 
no more between here and Ujiji. We left Kawanga 
cheerfully enough. The country undulated gently 
before us like the prairie of Nebraska, as devoid of 
trees almost as our plains. The top of every wave 
of land enabled us to see the scores of villages which 
dotted its surface, though it required keen eyes to 
detect at a distance the beehived and straw-thatched 
huts from the bleached grass of the plain. 

" Pursuing our way next day, after a few hours 
march, we came to Kahirigi, and quartered ourselves 
in a large village, governed over by Mionvu's brother, 
who had already been advised by Mionvu of the wind- 
fall in store for him. This man, as soon as we had 
set the tent, put in a claim for thirty doti, which I was 



152 Stanley's story; or, 

able to reduce, after much eloquence, lasting over five 
hours, to twenty-six doti. I saw my fine array of bales 
being reduced fast. Four more such demands as Mi- 
onvu's would leave me, in unclassic phrase, * cleaned 
out/ 

After paying this last tribute, as it was night, 1 
closed my tent, and, lighting my pipe, began to think 
seriously upon my position and how to reach Ujiji 
without paying more tribute. It was high time to 
resort either to a battle or to a strategy of some kind, 
possibly to striking into the jungle ; but there was no 
jungle in Uhha, and a man might be seen miles off on 
its naked plains. At least this last was the plan most 
likely to succeed without endangering the prospects 
almost within reach of the expedition. Calling the 
guide, I questioned him as to its feasibility. He said 
there was a Mguana, a slave of Thani Bin Abdullah, 
in the Coma, with whom I might consult. Sending 
for him, he presently came, and I began to ask him 
for how much he would guide us out of Uhha with- 
out being compelled to pay any more Muhongo. He 
replied that it was a hard thing to do, unless I had 
complete control over my men and they could be got 
to do exactly as I told them. When satisfied on this 
point he entered into an agreement to show me a 
road — or rather to lead me to it — that might be clear 
of all habitations as far as Ujiji for twelve doti, paid 
beforehand. The cloth was paid to him at once. 

"At half-past two A. ]\L the men were ready, and, 
stealing silently past the huts, the guide opened the 
gates, and we filed out one by one as quickly as pos- 
sible. At dawn we crossed the swift Zunuzi, which 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 53 

flowed southward into the Malagarazi, after which we 
took a northwesterly direction through a thick jungle 
of bamboo. There was no road, and behind us we 
left but little trail on the hard, dry ground. At eight 
A. M. we halted for breakfast, having marched nearly 
six hours, within the jungle, which stretched for miles 
around us. 

"At ten A. M. we resumed our journey, and after 
three hours camped at Lake Musuma, a body of wa- 
ter which during the rainy season has a length ot 
three miles and a breadth of two miles. It is one ol 
a group of lakes which fill deep hollows in the plain 
of Uhha. They swarm with hippopotami, and their 
shores are favorite resorts of large herds of buffalo 
and game. The eland and buffalo especially are in 
large numbers here, and the elephant and rhinoceros 
are exceedingly numerous. We saw several of these, 
but did not dare to fire. On the second morning af- 
ter crossing the Sunuzi and Rugufu Rivers, we had 
just started from our camp, and as there was no moon- 
light the head of the column came to a village, whose 
inhabitants, as we heard a few voices, were about start- 
ing. We were all struck with consternation, but, con- 
sulting with the guide, we despatched our goats and 
chickens, and leaving them in the road, faced about, 
retraced our steps, and after a quarter of an hour 
struck up a ravine, and descending several precipitous 
places, about half-past six o'clock found ourselves in 
Ukaranga — safe and free from all tribute taking 
Wahha 

" Exultant shouts were given — equivalent to the 
Anglo-Saxon hurrah— upon our success. Addressing 



1 54 STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

the men, I asked them, 'Why should we halt when but 
a few hours from Ujiji ? Let us march a few hours 
more and to-morrow we shall see the white man at 
Ujiji, and who knows but this may be the man we are 
seeking? Let us go on, and after to-morrow we shall 
have fish for dinner and many days' rest afterwards, 
every day eating the fish of the Tanganyika. Stop ; I 
think I smell the Tanganyika fish even now.' This 
speech was hailed with what the newspapers call ' loud 
applause ; great cheering,' and ' Ngema — very well, 
master ;' ' Hyah Barak- Allah — Onward, and the bless- 
ing of God be on you.' 

" We strode from the frontier at the rate of four 
miles an hour, and, after six hours' march, the tired 
caravan entered the woods which separate the resi- 
dence of the Chief of Ukaranga from the villages on 
the Mkuti River. As we drew near the village we 
went slower, unfurled the American and Zanzibar 
flags, presenting quite an imposing array. When we 
came in sight of Nyamtaga, the name of the Sultan's 
residence, and our flags and numerous guns were seen, 
the Wakaranga and their Sultan deserted their vil- 
lage en masse, and rushed into the woods, believing 
that we were Mirambo's robbers, who, after destroy- 
ing Unyanyembe, were come to destroy the Arabs 
and bunder of Ujiji ; but he and his people were soon 
reassured, and came forward to welcome us with pres- 
ents of goats and beer, all of which were very wel- 
come after the exceedingly lengthy marches we had 
recently undertaken. 

••Rising at early dawn our new clothes were brought 
forth again that we might present as decent an ap 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 155 

pearance as possible before the Arabs of Ujiji, and 
my helmet was well chalked and a new puggeree 
folded around it, my boots were well oiled and my 
white flannels put on, and altogether, without joking, 
I might have paraded the streets of Bombay without 
attracting any very great attention. 

" A couple of hours brought us to the base of a hill 
from the top of which the Kirangozi said we could 
obtain a view of the great Tanganyika Lake. Heed- 
less of the rough path or of the toilsome steep, spur- 
red onward by the cheery promise, the ascent was 
performed in a short time. On arriving at the top 
we beheld it at last from the spot whence, probably, 
Burton and Speke looked at it — 'the one in a half 
paralyzed state, the other almost blind.' Indeed, I 
was pleased at the sight; and, as we descended, it 
opened more and more into view until it was revealed 
at last into a grand inland sea, bounded westward by 
an appalling and black-blue range of mountains, and 
stretching north and south without bounds, a gray 
expanse of water. 

" From the western base of the hill was a three 
hours' march, though no march ever passed off so 
quickly. The hours seemed to have been quarters, 
we had seen so much that was novel and rare to us 
who had been travelling so long on the highlands 
The mountains bounding the lake on the eastward, 
receded and the lake advanced. We had crossed the 
Ruche, or Linche, and its thick belt of tall matete 
grass. We had plunged into a perfect forest of thein, 
and had entered into the cultivated fields which sup- 
ply the port of Ujiji with vegetables, etc., and we 



156 Stanley's story; or, 

stood at last on the summit of the last hill of the 
myriads we had crossed, and the port of Ujiji, em 
bowered in palms, with the tiny waves of the silvei 
waters of the Tanganyika rolling at its feet was 
directly below us. 

" We are now about descending — in a few minutes 
we shall have reached the spot where we imagine the 
object of our search — our fate will soon be decided 
No one in that town knows we are coming ; least of 
all do they know we are so close to them. If any of 
them ever heard of the white man at Unyanyembe 
they must believe we are there yet. We shall take 
them all by surprise, for no other but a white man 
would dare leave Unyanyembe for Ujiji with the 
country in such a distracted state — no other but a 
crazy white man whom Sheik, the son of Nasib is 
going to report to Syed or Burghash for not taking 
his advice. 

"Well, we are but a mile from Ujiji now, and it is 
high time we should let them know a caravan is com- 
ing ; so * Commence firing' is the word passed along 
the length of the column, and gladly do they begin 
They have loaded their muskets half full, and they 
roar like the broadside of a line-of-battle ship. Down 
go the ramrods, sending huge charges home to the 
breech, and volley after volley is fired. The flags arc 
fluttered ; the banner of America is in front waving 
joyfully ; the guide is in the zenith of his glory. The 
former residents of Zanzita will know it directly, and 
will wonder — as well they may — as to what it means. 
Never were the Stars and Stripes so beautiful to my 
mind — the breeze of the Tanganyika has such an ef 




13 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 57 

feet on them. The guide blows his horn, and the 
shrill, wild clangor of it is far and near ; and still the 
cannon muskets tell the noisy seconds. By this time 
the Arabs are fully alarmed ; the natives of Ujiji, 
Waguhha, Warundi, Wanguana, and I know not 
^hom, hurry up by the hundreds to ask what it all 
means — this fusilading, shouting, and blowing of 
horns and flag flying. There are Yambos shouted • 
out to me by the dozen, and delighted Arabs have 
run up breathlessly to shake my hands and ask' 
anxiously where I came from. But I have no pa- 
tience with them. The expedition goes far too slow. I 
should like to settle the vexed question by one per- 
sonal view. Where is he? Has he fled? 

"Suddenly a man— a black man — at my elbow 
shouts in English, ' How do you sir ?' 

" Hello ! who are you?' * I am the servant of Dr. 
Livingstone,' he says ; but before I can ask any more 
questions he is running like a madman toward the 
town. 

" We have at last entered the town. There are 
hundreds of people around me — I . might say thou- 
sands without exaggeration, it seems to me. It is a 
grand triumphal procession. As we move they move 
All eyes are drawn towards us. The expedition at 
last comes to a halt; the journey is ended for a time; 
but I alone have a few more steps to make. 

" There is a group of the most respectable Arabs, 
and as I come nearer I see the white face of an old 
man among them. He has a cap with a gold band 
around it, his dress is a short jacket of red blanket 



158 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



cloth and pants. I am shaking hands with him. We 
raise our hats, and I say : — 

" Dr. Livingstone, I presume ? 

** And he says, * Yes.' 

** Finis coronat opus, " 

And thus was the goal won after long and toilsome 
and dangerous journeyings, many hundred miles of 
them never before looked upon by the eye of white 
man. It was a triumph magnificently demonstrating 
the progress of humanity, science, and civilization ; 
and it must be universally regarded as an achieve- 
ment remarkably and most happily representative of 
the spirit of the age, since it was accomplished, not 
by the power and wealth of prince, or potentate, or 
government, but by the irrepressible enterprise of ao 
American Newspaper. 




CHAPTER IX. 

LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY IN AFRICA. 

The Great Explorer as a Companion — His Missionary Labors — ^The Story of 
His Latest Explorations — The Probable Sources of the Nile — Great Lakes 
and Rivers — The Country and People of Central Africa — A Race of African 
Amazons — Slave Trade — A Horrid Massacre — The Discoverer Plundered. 

Mr. Stanley, rather contrary, it would seem> to his 
expectations, found Dr. Livingstone an exceedinajy 
companionable and agreeable gentleman. He had 
been led to suppose that the explorer of Africa was 
haughty and reserved in manner. Instead, he found 
him hospitable, most generous, and as open and un- 
affected as a child. He deferred reading his own let- 
ters, brought by Mr. Stanley, until he had the general 
news of the world during the long period in which he 
had been "lost." Then, he read of home, and gave 
the commander of the *' Herald" expedition an ac- 
count of his explorations. The result of these inter- 
views is contained in a letter dated at Bunder Ujiji 
on Lake Tanganyika, December 26, i87i,from which 
we largely extract as follows : 

*• The goal was won. Finis coronal opus. I might 
here stop very well — for Livingstone was found — 
only the * Herald' I know will not be satisfied with 
one story, so I will sit down to another ; a story so 
interesting, because he, the great traveller, the hero 
Livingstone, tells most of it himself. 

159 



i6o Stanley's story; or, 

"Together we turned our faces towards his tembe. 
He pointed to the veranda of his house, which was 
an unrailed platform, built of mud, covered by wide 
overhanging eaves. He pointed to his own particu- 
lar seat, on a carpet of goatskins spread over a thick 
mat of palm leaf. I protested against taking his 
seat, but he insisted, and I yielded. We were 
seated, the Doctor and I, with our back to the wall 
the Arabs to our right and left and in front, the na- 
tives forming a dark perspective beyond. Then be- 
gan conversation ; I forget what about ; possibly 
about the road I took from Unyanyembe, but I am 
not sure. I know the Doctor was talking, and I was 
answering mechanically. I was conning the indomit- 
able, energetic, patient and persevering traveller, at 
whose side I now sat in Central Africa. Every hair 
of his head and beard, every line and wrinkle of his 
face, the wan face, the fatigued form, were all Impart- 
ing the intelligence to me which so many men so 
much desired. It was deeply interesting intelligence 
and unvarnished truths these mute but certain wit- 
nesses gave. They told me of the real nature of the 
work In which he was engaged. Then his lips began 
to give me the details — lips that cannot lie. I • could 
not repeat what he said. He had so much to say 
that he began at the end, seemingly oblivious of the 
fact that nearly six years had to be accounted for. 
Br.t the story came out bit by bit, unreservedly— as 
unreservedly as if he was conversing with Sir R. 
Murchlson, his true friend and best on earth. The 
man's heart was gushing out, not in hurried sentences, 
in rapid utterances, in quick relation — but in still and 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. l6l 

deep words. A happier companion, a truer friend 
than the traveller, I could not wish for. He was al- 
ways polite — with a politeness of the genuine kind — 
and this politeness never forsook him for an instant 
even in the midst of the most rugged scenes and 
greatest difficulties. Upon my first introduction to 
him Livingstone was to me like a huge tome, with a 
most unpretending binding. Within, the book might 
contain much valuable lore and wisdom, but its ex- 
terior gave no promise of what was within. Thus 
outside Livingstone gave no token — except of being 
rudely dealt with by the wilderness — of what element 
of power or talent lay within. He is a man of un- 
pretending appearance enough, has quiet, composed 
features, from which the freshness of youth has quite 
departed, but which retains the mobility of prime 
age just enough to show that there yet lives much 
endurance and vigor within his frame. The eyesi 
which are hazel, are remarkably bright, not dimmed 
in the least, though the whiskers and mustache are 
very gray. The hair, originally brown, is streaked 
here and there with gray over the temples, otherwise 
it might belong to a man ol thirty. The teeth above 
show indications of beinor worn out. The hard fare 
of Londa and Manyema have made havoc in their 
ranks. His form is stoutish, a little over the ordin- 
ary in height, with slightly bowed shoulders. When 
walking he has the heavy step of an overworked and 
fatigued man. On his head he wears the naval cap, 
with a round vizor, with which he has been identified 
throughout Africa His dress shows that at times he 
has had to resort to the needle to repair and replace 



1 62 Stanley's story; or, 

what travel has worn. Such is Livingstone exter- 
nally. 

" Of the inner man much more may be said than of 
the outer. As he reveals himself, bit by bit, to the 
stranger, a great many favorable points present them- 
selves, any of which taken singly might well dispose 
you toward him. I had brought him a packet of let- 
ters, and though I urged him again and again to de- 
fer conversation with me until he had read the news 
from home and children, he said he would defer 
reading until night ; for the time he would enjoy be- 
ing astonished by the European and any general 
world news I could communicate. He had acquired 
the art of being patient long ago, he said, and he had 
waited so long for letters that he could well afford 
to wait a few hours more. So we sat and talked on 
that humble veranda of one of the poorest houses in 
Ujiji. Talked quite oblivious of the large concourse 
of Arabs, Wanguana, and Wajiji, who had crowded 
around to see the new comer. 

" The hours of that afternoon passed most pleas- 
antly — few afternoons of my life more so. It seemed 
to me as if I had met an old, old friend. There was 
a friendly or good-natured abandon about Livingstone 
which was not lost on me. As host, welcoming on-e 
who spoke his language, he did his duties with a spirit 
and style I have never seen elsewhere. He had not 
much to offer, to be sure, but what he had was mine 
and his. The wan features which I had thought 
shocked me at first meeting, the heavy step which 
told of age and hard travel, the gray beard and 
stooping shoulders belied the man. Underneath 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 63 

that aged and well spent exterior lay an endless fund 
of high spirits, which now and then broke out in 
peals of hearty laughter — the rugged frame enclosed a 
very young and exuberant soul. The meal — I am not 
sure but what we ate three meals that afternoon — 
was seasoned with Innumerable jokes and pleasant 
aneedotes, interesting hunting stories, of which his 
friends Webb, Oswell, Vardon, and Gumming (Gor- 
don Gumming) were always the chief actors. ' You 
have brought me new life,' he said several times, so 
that I was not sure but that there was some little 
hysteria In this joviality and abundant animal spirits, 
but as I found it continued during several weeks I 
am now disposed to think it natural. 

"Another thing which specially attracted my atten- 
tion was his wonderfully retentive memory. When 
we remember the thirty years and more he has spent 
in Africa, deprived of books, we may well think it an 
uncommon memory that can recite whole poems of 
Burns, Byron, Tennyson, and Longfellow. Even the 
poets Whittier and Lowell were far better known to 
him than me. He knew an endless number of facts 
and names of persons connected with America much 
better than I, though It was my peculiar province as 
a journalist to have known them. 

" Dr. Livingstone Is a truly pious man — a man 
deeply imbued with real religious instincts. The 
study of the man would not be complete If we did 
not take the religious side of his character into con- 
sideration. His religion, any more than his business, 
is not of the theoretical kind — simply contenting it- 
self with avowing Its peculiar creed and ignoring all 



1 64 Stanley's story; or, 

other religions as wrong or weak. It is of the true, 
practical kind, never losing a chance to manifest itself 
in a quiet, practical way — never demonstrative or 
loud. It is always at work, if not in deed, by shining 
example. It is not aggressive, which sometimes is 
troublesome and often impertinent. In him religion 
exhibits its loveliest features. It governs his conduct 
towards his servants, towards the natives and towards 
the bigoted Mussulmans — all who come in contact 
with him. Without religion Livingstone, with his 
ardent temperament, his enthusiastic nature, his high 
spirit and courage, might have been an uncompanion- 
able man and a hard master. Religion has tamed all 
these characteristics; nay, if he was ever possessed 
of them, they have been thoroughly eradicated. 
Whatever was crude or wilful religion has refined, 
and made him, to speak the earnest, sober truth, the 
most agreeable of companions and indulgent of mas- 
ters. Every Sunday morning he gathers his little 
flock around him and has prayers read, in the tone 
recommended by Archbishop Whatley — viz, natural, 
unaffected, and sincere. Following them he delivers 
a short address in the Kisawahiti language about 
what he has been reading from the Bible to them, 
which is listened to with great attention. 

"When I first met the Doctor I asked him if he did 
not feel a desire to visit his country and take a little 
rest. He had then been absent about six years, and 
the answer he gave me freely shows what kind of man 
he is. Said he : — 

" ' I would like very much to go home and see my 
children once again, but I cannot bring my heart to 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 65 

abandon the task I have undertaken when it is so 
nearly completed. It only requires six or seven 
months more to trace the true source that I have dis- 
covered with Petherick's branch of the White Nile, or 
with the Albert Nyanza of Sir Samuel Baker. Why 
should I go before my task is ended, to have to come 
back again to do what I can very well do now ?' 'And 
why/ I asked, ' did you come so far back without fin- 
ishing the short task which you say you have yet to 
do ?' ' Simply because 1 was forced ; my men would 
not budge a step forward. They mutinied and formed 
a secret resolution that if I still insisted on going on 
to raise a disturbance in the country, and after they 
had effected it to abandon me, in which case I should 
be killed. It was dangerous to go any farther. I had 
explored six hundred miles of the watershed, had 
^aced all the principal streams which discharged 
their waters into the central line of drainage, and 
when about starting to explore the last one hundred 
miles the hearts of my people failed, and they set 
about frustrating me in every possible way. Now, 
having returned seven hundred miles to get a new 
supply of stores and another escort, I find myself des- 
titute of even the means to live but for a few weeks, 
and sick in mind and body.' 

"Again, about a week after I had arrived in Ujiji, 1 
asked Livingstone if he had examined the northern 
head of the Tanganyika. He answered immediately 
he had not, and then asked if people expected he had. 

" * I did try before setting out for Manyema,' he said, 
' to engage canoes and proceed northward, but I soon 
saw that the people were all confederating to fleece 



1 66 Stanley's story; or, 

me as they had Burton, and had I gone under such 
circumstances I should not have been able to proceed 
to Manyema to explore the central line of drainage, 
and of course the most important line — far more im- 
portant than the line of the Tanganyika ; for what 
ever connection there may be between the Tangan 
yika and the Albert the true sources of the Nile are 
those emptying into the central line of drainage. In 
my own mind I have not the least doubt that the Ru- 
sizi River flows from this lake into the Albert. For 
three months steadily I observed a current setting 
northward. I verified it by means of water plants. 
When Speke gives the altitude of the Tanganyika at 
only 1, 880 feet above the sea I imagine he must have 
fallen into the error by frequently writing the Anno 
Domini, and thus made a slip of the pen ; for the al- 
titude is over two thousand eight hundred feet by 
boiling point, though I- make it a little over three 
thousand feet by barometers. Thus you see that 
there are no very great natural difficulties on the 
score of altitude, and nothing to prevent the reason- 
able supposition that there may be a water connec- 
tion by means of the Rusizi or some other river be- 
tween the two lakes. Besides, the Arabs here are di 
vided in their statements. Some swear that the river 
goes out of the Tanganyika, others that it flows into 
the Tanganyika.' 

" Dr. Livingstone left the island of Zanzibar in 
March, 1866. On the 7th of the following month he 
departed from Mikindini Bay for the interior, with 
an expedition consisting of twelve Sepoys from Bom- 
bay, nine men from Johanna, of the Comoro Isles 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. l6j 

seven liberated slaves and two Zambesi men (taking 
them as an experiment), six camels, three buffaloes, 
two mules and three donkeys. He thus had thirty 
men, twelve of whom — viz., the Sepoys — were to act 
as guards for the expedition. They were mostly 
armed with the Enfield rifles presented to the Doc- 
tor by the Bombay Government. The baggage of 
the expedition consisted of ten bales cf cloth and 
two bags of beads, which were to serve as currency 
by which they would be enabled to purchase the nec- 
essaries of life in the countries the Doctor intended 
to visit. Besides the cumbrous moneys they carried 
several boxes of instruments, such as chronometers, 
air thermometers, sextant and artificial horizon, box- 
es containing clothes, medicines, and personal neces- 
saries. 

" The expedition travelled up the left bank of the 
Rovuma River, a route as full of difficulties as any 
that could be chosen. For miles Livingstone and 
his party had to cut their way with their axes through 
the dense and most impenetrable jungles which 
lined the river's banks. The road was a mere foot- 
path, leading in the almost erratic fashion, in and 
through the dense vegetation, seeking the easiest 
outlet from it without any regard to the course it 
ran. The pagazis were able to proceed easily enough, 
but the camels, on account of their enormous height, 
could not advance a step without the axes of the 
party first clearing the way, These tools of for- 
esters were almost always required, but the advance 
of the expedition was often retarded by the unwil- 
lingness of the Sepoys and Johanna men to work 



1 68 Stanley's story; or, 

Soon after the departure of the expedition from the 
coast the murmurings and complaints of these men 
began, and upon every occasion and at every oppor- 
tunity they evinced a decided hostility to an advance. 

"The Doctor and his little party arrived on the 
1 8th day of July, 1866, at a village belonging to a 
chief of the Mahiyaw, situated eight days' march south 
of the Rovuma and overlooking the watershed of the 
Lake Nyassa. The territory lying between the Ro- 
vuma river and this Mahiyaw chieftain was an unin- 
habited wilderness, during the transit of which Liv- 
ingstone and the expedition suffered considerably 
from hunger and desertion of men. 

"Early in August, 1866, the Doctor came to 
Mponda's country, a chief who dwelt near the Lake 
Nyassa. On the road thither two of the liberated 
slaves deserted him. Here, also, Wakotani (not 
Wikotani) a protege of the Doctor, Insisted upon his 
discharge, alleging as an excuse, which the Doctor 
subsequently found to be untrue, that he had found 
his brother." 

Hence the explorer proceeded to the heel of Lake 
Nyassa where there is a village of a Bablsa chief. 
The chief was ill, and Doctor Livingstone remained 
there for some time to give him medical aid. It was 
here that he was deserted by his Johanna men, the 
chief of whom, All Moosa (or Musa), pretended to 
give credence to a mournful story of plunder per- 
petrated upon a certain half-caste Arab v/ho had been 
along the western shore of the lake. Though the 
explorer gave no faith to the Arab story, he deter- 
mined not to go among the Ma-zitu, reported so 



THROUGH THE WTLDS OF AFRICA. 1 69 

hostile, and proceeded in a southwestern course for 
a considerable distance. The correspondent's letter 
goes on to say : 

"As soon as he turned his face westward Musa 
and the Johanna men ran away in a body. The 
Doctor says, in commenting upon Musa*s conduct, 
that he felt strongly tempted to shoot Musa and an- 
other ringleader, but was nevertheless glad that he 
did not soil his hands with their vile blood. A day 
or two afterwards another of his men — Simon Price 
by name — came to the Doctor with the same tale 
about the Ma-Zitu, but, compelled by the scant num- 
ber of his people to repress all such tendencies to 
desertion and fain t-heartedn ess, the Doctor * shut 
him up' at once and forbade him to utter the name of 
the Ma-Zitu any more. Had the natives not assisted 
him he must have despaired of ever being able to 
penetrate the wild and unexplored interior which he 
was now about to tread. 

" * Fortunately,' as the Doctor says with unction^ 
' I was in a country now, after leaving the shores of 
the Nyassa, where the feet of the slave trader had 
not trodden. It was a new and virgin land, and of 
course, as I have always found it in such cases, the 
natives were really good and hospitable, and for very 
small portions of cloth my baggage was conveyed 
from village to village by them.' In many other ways 
the traveller in his extremity was kindly treated by 
the undefiled and unspoiled natives. On leaving 
this hospitable region in tlie early part of December, 
Ti866, the Doctor entered a country where the Mazitu 
had excercised their custon\ary spoliating propensities 



170 Stanley's story; or, 

The land was swept clean of all provisions and 
cattle, and the people had emigrated to other coun- 
tries beyond the bounds of these ferocious plunder- 
ers. Again the expedition was besieged by famine, 
and was reduced to great extremity. To satisfy the 
pinching hunger it suffered it had recourse to the 
wild fruits which some parts of the country furnished 
At intervals the condition of the hard-pressed band 
was made worse by the heartless desertion of some 
of its members, who more than once departed with 
the Doctor's personal kit — changes of clothes and 
linen, etc. With more or lesss misfortunes con- 
stantly dogging his footsteps, he traversed in safety 
the countries of the Babisa, Bobemba, Barungu, Ba- 
ulungu, and Londa. 

" In the country of Londa lives the famous Ca- 
zembe — made known to Europeans first by Dr. La- 
cerda, the Portuguese traveller. Cazembe is a most 
intelligent prince ; is a tall, stalwart man, who wears 
a peculiar kind of dress, made of crimson print, in 
the form of a prodigious kilt. The mode of arrang- 
ing it is most ludicrous. All the folds of this enor- 
mous kilt are massed in front, which causes him to 
look as if the peculiarities of the human body were 
reversed in his case. The abdominal parts are thus 
covered with a balloon-like expansion of cloth, while 
the lumbar region, which is by us jealously clothed, 
with him is only half draped b^ a narrow curtain 
which by no means suffices to obscure its naturally 
fine proportions. In this state dress King Cazembe 
received Dr. Livingstone, surrounded by his chiefs 
and body guards. A chief, who had been deputed 
16 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 171 

by the King and elders to find out all about the 
white man, then stood up before the assembly, and in 
a loud voice gave the result of the inquiry he had in- 
stituted. He had heard the white man had come to 
look for waters, for rivers and seas. Though he did 
not understand what the white man could want with 
such things, he had no doubt that the object was 
good. Then Cazembe asked what the Doctor pro- 
posed doing and where he thought of going. The 
Doctor replied that he had thought of going south, 
as he had heard of lakes and rivers being in that di- 
rection. Cazembe asked : * What can you want to go 
there for ? The water is close here. There is plenty 
of large water in this neighborhood.' Before break- 
ing up the assembly Cazembe gave orders to let the 
white man go where he would through his country 
undisturbed and unmolested. He was the first 
Englishman he had seen, he said, and he liked him. 
" Shortly after his introduction to the King the 
Queen entered the large house surrounded by a body 
guard of Amazons armed with spears. She was a 
fine, tall, handsome young woman, and evidently 
thought she was about to make a great impression 
upon the rustic white man, for she had clothed her- 
self after a most royal fashion, and was armed with a 
ponderous spear. But her appearance, so different 
from what the Doctor had imagined, caused him to 
laugh, which entirely spoiled the effect intended, ^ot 
the laugh of the Doctor was so contagious that she 
herself was the first who imitated, and the Amazons, 
courtier-like, followed suit. Much disconcerted by 
this, the Queen ran back, followed by her obedient 



1/2 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

damsels — a retreat most undignified and unqueenlikc 
compared to her majestic advent into the Doctor's 
presence. 

" Soon after his arrival in the country of Londa, or 
Lunda, and before he had entered the district of 
Cazembe, he had crossed a river called the Cham^ 
bezi, which was quite an important stream. The 
similarity of the name with that large and noble 
river south, which will be forever connected with his 
name, misled Livingstone at that time, and he ac- 
cordingly did not pay it the attention it deserved, 
believing that the Chambezi was but the head-waters 
of the Zambezi, and consequently had no bearing or 
connection with the sources of the river of Egypt, of 
which he was in search. His fault was in relying too 
implicitly upon the correctness of Portuguese infor- 
mation. This error cost him many months of tedi- 
ous labor and travel. But these travels and tedious 
labors of his in Londa and the adjacent countries 
have established beyond doubt, first, that the Cham- 
bezi is a totally distinct river from the Zambezi of 
the Portuguese, and secondly, that the Chambezi, 
starting from about latitude eleven degrees south, is 
none other than the most southerly feeder of the 
great Nile, thus giving this famous river a length of 
over two thousand six hundred miles of direct lati- 
tude, making it secord to the Mississippi, the longest 
river in the world. The real and true name of the 
Zambezi is Dombazi. When Lacuda and his Portu- 
giiese successors came to Cazembe, crossed the 
Chambezi and heard its name, they very naturally 
set it down as 'our own Zambezi/ and without 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 73 

further inquiry sketched it as running in that direc- 
tion. 

"During his researches in that region, so pregnant 
in discoveries, Li\dngstone came to a lake lying 
northeast of Cazenibe, which the natives called 
Liemba, from the country of that name, which 
bordered it on the east and south. In tracing the 
lake north he found it to be none other than the 
Tanganyika, or the southeastern extremity of it, 
which looks on the Doctor's map very much like an 
outline of Italy. The latitude of the southern end 
of this great body of water is about nine degrees 
south, which gives it thus a length, from north to 
south, of 360 geographical miles. 

" From the southern extremity of the Tanganyika 
he crossed Marungu and came in sight of Lake 
Moero. Tracing this lake, which is about sixty miles 
in length, to its southern head, he found a river 
called the Luapula entering it from that direction. 
Following the Luapula south he found it issue from 
the large lake of Bangweolo, which is as large in 
superficial area as the Tanganyikao In exploring for 
the waters which emptied into the lake he found by 
far the most important of these feeders was the 
Chambezi. So that he had thus traced the Cham- 
bezi from its source to Lake Bangweolo, and issue 
from its northern head under the name of Luapula, 
and found it enter Lake Moero. Again he returned 
to Cazembe, well satisfied that the river running 
north through three degrees of latitude could not be 
the river running south under the name of the Zam- 



174 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

bczi, though there might be a remarkable resemblance 
in their names. 

" At Cazembe he found an old white-bearded half- 
caste named Mohammed ben Salih, who was kept as 
a kind of prisoner at large by the King because of 
certain suspicious circumstance attending his advent 
and stay in his country. Through Livingstone's in- 
fluence Mohammed ben Salih obtained his release. 
On the road to Ujiji he had bitter cause to regret 
having exerted himself in the half-caste's behalf He 
turned out to be a most ungrateful wretch, who 
poisoned the minds of the Doctor's few followers 
and ingratiated himself in their favor by selling the 
favors of his concubines to them, thus reducing them 
to a kind of bondage under him. From the day he 
had the vile old man in his company manifold and 
bitter misfortunes followed the Doctor up to his ar 
rival in Ujiji, in March, 1869. 

** From the date of his arrival until the end oi 
June (1869) he remained in Ujiji, whence he dated 
those letters which, though the outside world still 
doubted his being alive, satisfied the minds of the 
Royal Geographical people and his intimate friends 
that he was alive, and Musa's tale an Ingenious but: 
false fabrication of a cowardly deserter. It was dur- 
ing this time that the thought occurred to him oi 
sailing around the Lake Tanganyika, but the Arabs 
and natives were so bent upon fleecing him that, had 
he undertaken it the remainder of his goods would 
not have enabled him to explore the central line of 
drainage, the initial point of which he found far 
south of Cazembe, in about latitude 1 1 degrees, in 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 75 

the river Chambezi. In the days when. tired Captain 
Burton was resting in Ujiji, after his march from the 
coast near Zanzibar, the land to which Livingstone 
on his departure from Ujiji, bent his steps, was un- 
known to the Arabs save by vague report. Messrs. 
Burton and Speke never heard of it, it seems. 
Speke, who wafe the geographer of Burton's expe- 
dition, heard of a place called Uruwa, which he 
placed on his map according to the general direction 
indicated by the Arabs ; but the most enterprising 
of the Arabs, in their search after ivory, only touched 
the frontiers of Rua, as the natives and Livingstone 
call it ; for Rua is an immense country, with a length 
of six degrees of latitude and as yet an undefined 
breadth from east to west. 

"At the end of June, 1869, Livingstone took dhow 
at Ujiji and crossed over to Uguhha, on the western 
shore, for his last and greatest series of explorations, 
the result of which was the discovery of a series of 
lakes of great magnitude connected together by a 
large river called by different names as it left one 
lake to flow to another. From the port of Uguhha 
he set off in company with a body of traders, in an 
almost direct westerly course, through the lake coun- 
try of Uguhha. Fifteen days march brought them 
to Bambarre, the first important ivory depot in Man- 
yema, or, as the natives pronounce it, Manuyema. 
For nearly six months he was detained at Bambarre 
from ulcers in the feet, with copious dischaiges of 
bloody ichor oozing from the sores as soon as he set 
his feet on the ground. When well, he set off in a 
northerly direction, and, after several days, came to 



176 Stanley's story; or, 

a broad, lacustrine river, called the Lualaba, flowing 
northward and westward, and, in some places south- 
ward, in a most confusing way. The river was from 
one to three miles broad. By exceeding pertinacity 
he contrived to follow its erratic course until he saw 
the Lualaba enter the narrow but lengthy lake of 
Kamolondo, in about latitude 6 de^. 30 min. south. 
Retracing it south he came to the point where he 
had seen the Luapula enter Lake Moero. 

" One feels quite enthusiastic when listening to 
Livingstone's description of the beauties of Moero 
scenery. Pent in on all sides by high mountains 
clothed to their tips with the richest vegetation of 
the tropics, Moero discharges its superfluous waters 
through a deep rent in the bosom of the mountains. 
The impetuous and grand river roars through the 
chasm with the thunder of a cataract; but soon after 
leaving its confined and deep bed it expands into the 
calm and broad Lualaba — expanding over miles of 
ground, making great bends west and southwest, then, 
curving northward, enters Kamolondo By the na- 
tives it is called the Lualaba, but the Doctor, in order 
to distinguish it from the other rivers of the same 
name, has given it the name of Webb's River, after 
Mr. Webb, the wealthy proprietor of Newstead Ab- 
bey, whom the Doctor distinguishes as one of his 
oldest and most consistent friends. Away to the 
southwest from Kamolondo is another large lake, 
which discharges its waters by the important river 
Locki. or Lomami, into the great Lualaba. To this 
lake, known as Chebungo by the natives. Dr. Living- 
stone has given the name of Lincoln, to be hereafter 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 77 

distinguished on maps and in books as Lake Lincoln, 
in memory of Abraham Lincoln, our murdered Pres- 
ident. This was done from the vivid impression pro- 
duced on his mind by hearing a portion of his inau- 
guration speech read from an English pulpit, which 
related to the causes that induced him to issue his 
emancipation proclamation. To the memory of the 
man whose labors in behalf of the negro race deserved 
the commendation of all good men Livingstone has 
contributed a monument more durable than brass or 
stone. 

" Entering Webb's River from the south-southwest, 
a little north of Kamolondo, is a large river called the 
Lufira, but the streams that discharge themselves 
from the watershed into the Lualaba are so numer- 
ous that the Doctor's map would not contain them, 
so he has left all out except the most important. 
Continuing his way north, tracing the Luabala through 
its manifold and crooked curves as far as latitude four 
degrees south, he came to another large lake called 
the Unknown Lake; but here you may come to a 
dead halt, and read it thus : — * * * ♦ * * Here 
was the furthermost point. From here he was com- 
pelled to return on the weary road to Ujiji, a distance 
of 600 miles. 

** In this brief sketch of Doctor Livingstone's won- 
derful travels it is to be hoped that the most super- 
ficial reader as well as the student of geography, 
comprehends this grand system of lakes connected 
together by Webb's river. To assist him, let him 
procure a map of Africa, embracing the latest discov- 
eries. Two degrees south of the Tanganyika, and 



178 Stanley's story; or, 

two degrees west let liim draw the outlines of a lake^ 
its greatest length from east to west, and let him call 
it Bangweolo. One degree or thereabout to the 
northwest let him sketch the outlines of another but 
smaller lake and call it Moero ; a degree again north 
of Moero another lake of similar size, and call it 
Kamolondo, and still a degree north of Kamolondo 
another lake, large and as yet undefined limits, which, 
in the absence of any specific term, we will call the 
Nameless Lake. Then let him connect these several 
lakes by a river called after different names. Thus, 
the main feeder of Bangweolo, the Chambezi ; the 
river which issues out of Bangweolo and runs into 
Moero, the Luapula; the river connecting Moero 
with Kamolondo, Webb's river; that which runs 
from Kamolondo into the Nameless Lake northward, 
the Lualaba; and let him write in bold letters over 
the rivers Chambezi, Luapula, Webb's River and the 
Lualaba the * Nile,' for these are all one and the same 
river. Again, west of Moero Lake, about one degree 
or thereabouts, another large lake may be placed on 
his map, with a river running diagonally across to 
meet the Lualaba north of Lake Kamolondo. This 
new lake is Lake Lincoln, and the river is the Lo- 
mami River, the confluence of which with the Lua- 
laba is between Kamolondo and the Nameless Lake. 
Taken altogether, the reader may be said to have a 
very fair idea of what Dr. Livingstone has been do- 
ing these long years, and what additions he has made 
to the study of African geography. That this river, 
distinguished under several titles, flowing from one 
lake into another in a northerly direction, with all 




CHARACTERISTIC HEAD-DRESSES. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 79 

Its great crooked bends and sinuosities is the Nile 
the true Nile, the Doctor has not the least doubt. 
For a long time he did doubt, because of its deep 
bends and curves — west, and southwest even — but 
having traced it from its headwaters, the Chambezi, 
through seven degrees of latitude — that is, from lat- 
itude eleven degrees south to a little north of lati- 
tude four degrees south — he has been compelled to 
come to the conclusion that it can be no other river 
than the Nile. He had thought it was the Congo, 
)ut he has discovered the sources of the Congo to 
be the Kasai and the Quango, two rivers which rise 
on the western side of the Nile watershed in about 
the latitude of Bangweolo; and he was told of another 
river called the Lubilash, which rose from the north 
and ran west. But the Lualaba the Doctor thinks 
cannot be the Congo, from its great size and body 
and from its steady and continual flow northward 
through a broad and extensive valley, bounded by 
enormous mountains, westerly and easterly. The 
altitude of the most northerly point to which the 
Doctor traced the wonderful river was a little over 
two thousand feet, so that though Baker makes out 
his lake to be two thousand seven hundred feet above 
the sea, yet the Bahr Ghazal, through which Pether- 
ick's branch of the White Nile Issues into the Nile 
is only a little over two thousand feet, in which case 
there is a possibility that the Lualaba may be none 
other than Petherick's branch. It Is well known that 
trading stations for ivory have been established for 
about five hundred miles up Petherick's branch. We 
must remember this fact when told that Gondokoro, 



i8o Stanley's story; or, 

in latitude four degrees north, is two thousand feet 
above the sea, and latitude four degrees south, where 
the Doctor was halted, Is only a little over two thou- 
sand feet above the sea. That two rivers, said to be 
two thousand feet above the sea, separated from each 
other by eight degrees of latitude, are the same 
stream may, among some men, be regarded as a 
startling statement. But we must restrain mere ex- 
pressions of surprise and take Into consideration that 
this mighty and broad Lualaba Is a lacustrine river 
— broader than the Mississipi — and think of our own 
rivers, which, though shallow, are exceedingly broad 
We must wait also until the altitude of the two riv- 
ers — the Lualaba, where the Doctor halted, and the 
southern point on the Bahr Ghazal, where Pether- 
ick has been— are known with perfect accuracy. 

" Webb's River, or the Lualaba, from Bangweolo is 
a lacustrine river, expanding from one to three miles 
in breadth. At Intervals It forms extensive lakes, 
then contracting Into a broad river it again forms a 
a lake, and so on to latitude four degrees north, and 
beyond this point the Doctor heard of a large lake 
again north. Now, for the sake of argument, suppose 
we give this nameless lake a length of four degrees 
latitude, as it may be the one discovered by Plaggia, 
the Italian traveller, from which Petherlck's branch 
of the White Nile issues out through reeds, marshes 
and the Bahr Ghazal into the White Nile south of 
Gondokoro. By this method we can suppose the 
rivers one — for the lakes extending over so many de- 
grees of latitude would obviate the necessity of ex- 
plaining the differences of latitude that must natii- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. l8l 

rally exist between the points of a river eight degrees 
of latitude apart. Also, that Livingstone's instru- 
ments for observation and taking altitude may have 
been in error, and this is very likely to have been the 
case, subjected as they have been to rough handling 
during nearly six years of travel. 

* Despite the apparent difficulty about the altitude, 
there is another strong reason for believing Webb's 
River, or the Lualaba, to be the Nile. The water- 
shed of this river, 600 miles of which Livingstone has 
travelled, is drained by a valley which lies north and 
south between the eastern and western ranges of the 
watershed. This valley or line of drainage, while it 
does not receive the Kasai and the Quango, receives 
rivers flowing from a great distance west — for in- 
stance, the important tributaries Lufira and Lomami 
and large rivers from the east, such as the Lindi and 
Luamo ; and while the most intelligent Portuguese 
travellers and traders state that the Kasai, the Quan- 
go and Lubilash are the head waters of the Congo 
river, no one as yet has started the supposition that 
the grand river flowing north and known to the na- 
tives as the Lualaba, was the Congo. If this river 
is not the Nile where, then, are the head waters ol 
the Nile ? The small river running out of the Vic- 
toria Nyanza and the river flowing out of the little. 
Lake Albert have not sufficient water to form the 
great river of Egypt. As you glide down the Nile 
and note the Asna, the Geraffe, the Sobat, the Blue 
Nile and Atbara,and follow the river down to Egypt 
it cannot fail to impress you that it requires many 
more streams, or one large river, larger than all yet 



(82 STANLEYS STORY,* OR, 

discovered, to influence its inundations and replace 
the waste of its flow through a thousand miles of 
desert. Perhaps a more critical survey of the Bahr 
Ghazal would prove that the Nile is influenced by 
the waters that pour through 'the small piece of water 
resembling a duck pond buried in a sea of rushes,' 
as Speke describes the Bahr Ghazal. Livingstone's 
discovery answers the question and satisfies the in- 
telligent hundreds, who, though Bruce and Speke and 
Baker, each in his turn had declared he had found 
the Nile, the only and true Nile sources, yet doubted 
and hesitated to accept the enthusiastic assertions as 
a final solution of the Nile problem. Even yet, ac- 
cording to Livingstone the Nile sources have not been 
found ; though he has traced the Lualaba through 
seven degrees of latitude flowing north, and though 
neither he nor I have a particle of doubt of its being 
the Nile, not yet can the Nile question be said to be 
ended for three reasons — 

First — He has heard of the existence of four foun- 
tains, two of which give birth to a river flowing 
north — Webb's River, or the Lualaba ; two to a river 
flowing south, which is the Zambezi. He has heard 
of these fountains repeatedly from the natives. 
Several times he has been within one hundred and 
two hundred miles from them, but something always 
interposed to prevent him going to see them. Ac- 
cording to those who have seen them, they rise on 
either side of a mound or hill which contains no 
Stones. Some have even called it an ant hill. One 
of these fountains is said to be so large that a man 
standing on one side cannot be seen from the other 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 83 

These fountains must be discovered, and their posi- 
tion taken. The Doctor does not suppose them to 
lie south of the feeders of Lake Bangweolo. 

*" Second — Webb's River must be traced to its con 
nection with some portion of the old Nile. 

" Third — The connection between the Tanganyika 
and the Albert Nyanza must be ascertained. 

" When these three things have been accomplished, 
then, and not till then, can the mystery of the Nile 
be explained. The two countries through which 
this marvellous lacustrine river — the Lualaba — flows, 
with its manifold lakes and broad expanses of water, 
are Rua — the Uruwa of Speke — and Manyema. For 
the first time Europe is made aware that between 
the Tanganyika and the known sources of the Congo 
there exist teeming millions of the negro race who 
never saw or heard of the white peoples who make 
such noisy and busy stir outside of Africa. Upon 
the minds of those who had the good fortune to see 
the first specimen of these remarkable white races 
Livingstone seems to have made a favorable impres- 
sion, though, through misunderstanding his object 
and coupling him with the Arabs who make horrible 
work there, his life has been sought after more than 
once. 

"These two extensive countries, Rua and Man- 
yema, are populated by true heathens — governed not 
as the sovereignties of Karagwah,Wumdi,and Uganda 
by despotic kings, but each village by its own sultan 
or lord. Thirty miles outside of their own immedi- 
ate settlements the most intelligent of those small 
chiefs seem to know nothing. Thirty miles from the 

15 



1 84 Stanley's story; or, 

Lualaba there were bu,t few people who had ever 
heard of the great river. Such ignorance among the 
natives of their own countries, of course, increased 
the labors of Livingstone. Compared with these all 
tribes and nations in Africa with whom Livingstone 
came in contact may be deemed civilized. Yet in 
the arts of home manufacture these wild people of 
Manyema are far superior to any he had seen. When 
other tribes and nations contented themselves with 
hides and skins of animals thrown negligently over 
their shoulders the people of Manyema manufac- 
tured a cloth from fme grass which may favorably 
compare with the finest grass cloth of India. They 
also know the art of dyeing in various colors — ■ 
black, yellow, and purple. The Wanguana or freed 
men of Zanzibar, struck with the beauty of this fine 
grass frabric, eagerly exchange their cotton cloths 
for fine grass cloth, and on almost every black man 
returned from Manyema I have seen this native cloth 
converted into elegantly made damirs (Arabic)— 
short jackets. 

" These countries are also very rich in ivory. The 
fever for going to Manyema to exchange their 
tawdry beads for the precious tusks of Manyema is 
of the same kind as that which impelled men to the 
gulches and placers of California, Colorado, Mon- 
tana, and Idaho; after nuggets to Australia, and 
diamonds to Cape Colony. Manyema is at present 
the El Dorado of the Arabs and the Wamrima tribes. 
It is only about four years since the first Arab re- 
turned from Manyema with such wealth of ivory and 
reports about the fabulous quantities found there 




AN AFRICAN BELLE. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 85 

that ever since the old beaten tracks of Karagwah, 
Uganda, Ufipa and Marungu have been compara- 
tively deserted. The people of Manyema, ignorant 
of the value of the precious article, reared their huts 
upon ivory stanchions. Ivory pillars and doors were 
common sights in Manyema, and hearing of these one 
can no longer wonder at the ivory palace of Solo- 
mon. For generations they had used ivory tusks as 
doorposts and eave stanchions, until they had be- 
come perfectly rotten and worthless. But the advent 
of the Arabs soon taught them the value of the 
article. It has now risen considerably in price, though 
yet fabulously cheap. At Zanzibar the value of ivory 
per frarsilah of thirty-five pounds weight is from 
fifty dollars to sixty dollars, according to its quality 
In Unyanyembe it is about one dollar and ten cents 
per pound ; but in Manyema it may be purchased for 
from half a cent to one and a quarter cent's worth of 
copper per pound of ivory. 

" The Arabs, however, have the knack of spoiling 
markets by their rapacity and wanton cruelty. With 
muskets a small party of Arabs are invincible against 
such people as those of Manyema, who until lately 
never heard the sound of a gun. The report of a 
musket inspires mortal terror in them, and it is 
almost impossible to induce them to face the muzzle 
of a gun. They believe that the Arabs have stolen 
the lightning, and that against such people the bow 
and arrow can have but little effect. They are by 
no means devoid of courage, and they have often 
declared that were it not for the guns not one Arab 
would leave the country alive, which tends to prove 



1 86 Stanley's story; or, 

that they would willingly engage In fight with the stran- 
gers, who have made themselves so detestable, were 
it not that the startling explosion of gunpowder in- 
spires them with such terror. 

"Into whichever country the Arabs enter they 
contrive to render their name and race abominated 
But the mainspring of it all is not the Arab's nature, 
color, or name, but simply the slave trade. So long 
as the slave trade is permitted to be kept up at Zan- 
zibar so long will these otherwise enterprising peo- 
ple, the Arabs, kindle against them throughout Africa 
the hatred of the natives. The accounts which the 
Doctor brings from that new region are most de- 
plorable. He was -an unwilling spectator of a horri- 
ble deed — a massacre committed on the inhabitants 
of a populous district — who had assembled in the 
market place, on the banks of the Lualaba, as they 
had been accustomed to for ages. It seems the Wa- 
Manyema are very fond of marketing, believing it to 
be the summuin boitum of human enjoyment. They 
find unceasing pleasure In chaffering with might and 
main for the least mite of their currency — the last 
bead — and when they gain the point to which theii 
peculiar talents are devoted they feel intensely hap- 
py. The women are excessively fond of their mar- 
keting, and as they are very beautiful, the market 
place must possess considerable attractions for the 
male sex. It was on such a day, with just such a 
scene, that Tagomoyo, a half-caste Arab, with his 
armed slave escort, commenced an indiscriminate 
massacre by firing volley after volley into the dense 
mass of human beings. It is supposed that there 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 87 

were about two thousand present, and at the first 
sound of the firing these poor people all made a rush 
for their canoes. In the fearful hurry to avoid being 
shot the canoes were paddled away by the first for- 
tunate few who got possession of them. Those that 
were not so fortunate sprang into the deep waters of 
the Lualaba, and, though many of them became an 
easy prey to the voracious crocodiles that swarmed 
to the scene, the majority received their deaths from the 
bullets of the merciless Tagomoyo and his villainous 
band. The Doctor believes, as do the Arabs themselves, 
that about four hundred people, mostly women and 
children, lost their lives, while many more were made 
slaves. This scene is only one of many such which 
he has unwillingly witnessed, and he is utterly unable 
to describe the loathing he feels for the inhuman 
perpetrators. 

" Slaves from Manyema command a higher price 
than those of any other country, because of their fine 
forms and general docility. The women, the Doctor 
says repeatedly, are remarkably pretty creatures, and 
have nothing except their hair in common with the 
negroes of the West Coast. They are of very light 
color, have fine noses, well-cut and not over full lips, 
and a prognathous jaw is uncommon. These women 
are eagerly sought after for wives by the half-castes 
of the East Coast, and even the pure Amani Arabs 
do not disdain connection with them. To the north 
of Manyema Livingstone came to a light-complex- 
ioned race of the color of Portuguese, or our own 
Louisiana quadroons, who are very fine people, and 
singularly remarkable for commercial * cuteness' and 



1 88 Stanley's story; or, 

sagacity. The women are expert divers for oysters, 
which are found in great abundance in the Lualaba, 

" Rua, at a place called Katanga, is rich in copper. 
The copper mines of this place have been worked for 
ages. In the bed of a stream gold has been found 
washed down in pencil-shaped lumps or particles as 
large as split peas. Two Arabs have gone thither to 
prospect for this metal, but as they are ignorant of 
the art of gulch mining it is scarcely possible that 
they will succeed. 

" From these highly important and interesting dis- 
coveries Dr. Livingstone was turned back when 
almost on the threshold of success by the positive 
refusal of his men to accompany him further. They 
were afraid to go unless accompanied by a large 
force of men, and as these were not procurable in 
Manyema the Doctor reluctantly turned his face 
toward Ujiji. 

"It was a long and weary road back. The journey 
had now no interest for him. He had travelled it be- 
fore when going westward, full of high hopes and as- 
pirations, impatient to reach the goal which promised 
him rest from his labors ; now returning unsuccessful, 
baffled and thwarted when almost in sight of the end, 
and having to travel the same road back on foot, with 
disappointed expectations and defeated hopes preying 
on his mind, no wonder that the brave old spirit al- 
most succumbed and the strong constitution almost 
wrecked. He arrived at Ujiji October 26, almost at 
death's door. On the way he had been trying to 
cheer himself up, since he had found it impossible to 
contend against the obstinacy of his men, with ' it 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 89 

won't take long, five or six months more ; it mat- 
ters not, since it can't be helped. I have got my 
goods in Ujiji and can hire other people and make a 
new start' These are the words and hopes with 
which he tried to delude himself into the idea that all 
would be right yet ; but imagine, if you can, the shock 
he must have suffered when he found that the man to 
whom was entrusted his goods for safe keeping had 
sold every bale for ivory. 

" The evening of the day Livingstone had returned 
to Ujiji, Susi and Chuma, two of his most faithful 
men, were seen crying bitterly. The Doctor asked 
them what ailed them, and was then informed for the 
first time of the evil tidings that awaited him. Said 
they : — 'All our things are sold, sir. Shereef has sold 
everything for ivory.' Later in the evening Shereef 
came to see him and shamelessly offered his hand, 
with a salutatory * Yambo.' Livingstone refused his 
hand, saying he could not shake hands with a thief. 
As an excuse Shereef said he had divined on the Ko- 
ran and that had told him the Hakim (Arabic for 
Doctor) was dead. Livingstone was now destitute. 
He had just enough to keep him and his men alive 
for about a month, after which he would be forced to 
beg from the Arabs. He had arrived in Ujiji Octo- 
ber 26. The Herald Expedition arrived November 
10, from the coast — only sixteen days difference. Had 
1 not been delayed at Unyanyembe by the war with 
Mirambo I should have gone on to Manyema, and 
very likely have been traveling by one road, while he 
would have been coming by another to Ujiji. Had 
I gone on two years ago, when I first received the in- 



190 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



structions, I should have lost him without doubt. But 
I am detained by a series of circumstances, which 
chafed and fretted me considerably at that time, only 
to permit him to reach Ujiji sixteen days before I 
appeared. It was as if we were marching to meet 
together at an appointed rendezvous — the one from 
the west, the other from the east. 

" The Doctor had heard of a white man being at 
Unyanyembe, who was said to have boats with him, 
and he had thought he was another traveller sent by 
the French government to replace Lieutenant Le 
Sainte, who died from a fever a few miles above Gon- 
dokoro. I had not written to him because I believed 
him to be dead, and of course my sudden entrance 
into Ujiji was as great a surprise to him as it was 
to the Arabs. But the sight of the American flag, 
which he saw waving in the van of the expedition, 
indicated that one was coming who could speak his 
own language, and you know already how the leader 
was received." 




CHAPTER X. 

LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY IN AFRICA. 
[continued.] 

An Exploration of Tanganyika Lake — Result — Christmas at Ujiji — Livingstone 
Proceeds with Stanley to Unyanyembe — Account of the Journey — Alleged 
Neglect of Livingstone by the British Consulate at Zanzibar — Departure of 
the Explorer for the Interior, and of J\Ir. Stanley for Europe. 

It had been supposed by Dr. Livingstone that the 
waters of Tanganyika Lake had outlet northward, 
and that they were, therefore, a part of the neces- 
sarily vast sources of the great river of the continent 
whose annual inundations are among the most 
wonderful illustrations in nature of the more than 
majestic power of Almighty God. His many dis- 
coveries of great lakes and rivers far to the westward 
of Tanganyika, their evident connection in a system, 
similar to that of the great lakes of North America 
at last forming the St. Lawrence river, flowing north- 
ward ; the natural necessity there is for immense 
sources of supply to the Nile — these and other con- 
siderations left the explorer to imagine that Tan- 
ganyika formed a part of the same system with that 
lake which he named after an illustrious President of 
the United States. The commander of the " Her- 
ald" expedition, therefore, with a fine appreciation of 
the situation, offered his escort to Dr. Livingstone, 
with a proposal to accompany him to the head of the 

191 



192 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

lake. The offer was accepted, and the explorer, as 
Mr. Stanley says, " like a hero, lost no time in 
starting." 

The account of this journey, or voyage, rather, for 
the party travelled by boat, is given in a dispatch 
dated December 23, 1871, at Ujiji. It is as follows: 

" On the 20th of November Dr. Livingstone and 
your correspondent, with twenty picked men of the 
Herald Expedition Corps, started. Despite the as- 
sertion of Arabs that the Warundi were danger- 
ous and would not let us pass, we hugged their coast 
closely, and when fatigued boldly encamped in their 
country. Once only were we obliged to fly — and 
this was at dead of night — from a large party which 
we knew to be surrounding us on the land side. We 
got to the boat safely, and we might have punished 
them severely had the Doctor been so disposed 
Once also we were stoned, but we paid no heed to 
them and kept on our way along their coast until we 
arrived at Mokamba's, one of the chiefs of Usige. 
Mokamba was at war with a neighboring chief, who 
lived on the left bank of the Rusizi. That did not 
deter us, and we crossed the head of the Tanganyika 
to Mugihewah, governed by Ruhinga, brother of 
Mokamba. 

" Mugihewah is a tract of country on the right 
bank of the Rusizi, extending to the lake. With 
Mokamba and Ruhinga we became most intimate; 
they proved to be sociable, good-natured chiefs, and 
gave most valuable information concerning the 
countries lying to the north of Usige ; and if their 
information is correct, Sir Samuel Baker will be 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 93 

obliged to curtail the ambitious dimensions of his 
lake by one degree, if not more. A Mgwana, living 
at Mokamba s, on the eastern shore of the lake, had 
informed us that the River Rusizi certainly flowed 
out of the lake, and after joining the Kitangule 
emptied into the Lake Nyanza (Victoria). 

" When we entered Ruhinga's territory of Mugihe- 
wah, we found ourselves about 300 yards from the 
river about which a great deal has been said and 
written. At Unyanyembe I was told that the Rusizi 
was an affluent. At Ujiji all Arabs but one united 
in saying the same thing, and within ten miles of 
the Rusizi a freedman of Zanzibar swore it was an 
affluent 

" On the morning of the eleventh day of our de- 
parture from Ujiji, we were rowed towards the river. 
We came to a long, narrow bay, fringed on all sides 
with tall, dense reeds and swarming with crocodiles 
and soon came to the mouth of the Rusizi. As soon 
as we had entered the .river all doubt vanished before 
the strong, turbid flood against which we had to con- 
tend in the ascent. After about ten minutes we en- 
tered what seemed a lagoon, but which was the result 
of a late inundation. About an hour higher up the 
river began to be confined to its proper banks, and is 
about thirty yards broad, but very shallow. 

" Two days higher up, Ruhinga told us, the Rusizi 
was joined by the Loanda, coming from the north- 
west. There could be no mistake then. Dr. Living- 
stone and myself had ascended it, had felt the force 
of the strong inflowing current — the Rusizi was an 
influent, as much so as the Malagarazi, the Linche, 



194 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

and Rugufu, but with its banks full it can only be 
considered as ranking third among the rivers flowing 
into the Tanganyika Though rapid it is extremely 
shallow ; it has three mouths, up which an ordinary 
ship's boat loaded might in vain attempt to ascend, 
Burton and Speke, though they ascended to within 
six hours' journey by canoe from the Rusizi, were 
compelled to turn back by the cowardice of the boat- 
men. Had they ascended to Meuta's capital, they 
could easily have seen the head of the lake. Usige 
is but a district of Wumdi, governed by several small 
chiefs, who owe obedience to Mwezi, the great King 
of Wumdi. 

"We spent nine days at the head of the Tangan- 
yika exploring the islands and many bays that indent 
its shores. 

" In returning to Ujiji we coasted along the west 
side of the Tanganyika, as far as the country of the 
Wasansi,whom we had to leave on no amicable terms 
owing to their hostility to Arabs, and arrived at 
Ujiji on the i8th of December, having been absent 
twenty-eight days. 

" Though the Rusizi River can no longer be a sub- 
ject of curiusity to geographers — and we are certain 
that there is no connection between the Tanganyika 
and Baker's Lake, or the Albert N'yanza — it is not 
yet certain that there is no connection between the 
Tanganyika and the Nile River. The western coast 
has not all been explored ; and there is reason to 
suppose that a river runs out of the Tanganyika 
through the deep caverns of Kabogo Mountain, far 
under ground and out on the western side of Kabo- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 195 

go into the Lualaba, or the Nile. Livingstone has 
seen the river about forty miles or so west of Ka- 
bogo (about forty yards broad at that place), but he 
does not know that it runs out of the mountain. 

" This is one of the many things which he has yet 
to examine." 

It thus appearing that the Rusizi is an affluent, not 
an effluent, of Tanganyika Lake, the expedition 
failed to sustain the explorer's hypothesis, but added 
a useful item of geographical knowledge to the then ' 
existing stock. Nor does it follow that because the 
Rusizi flows into the Tanganyika, there is no river 
flowing out of it into that system of lakes which had 
before been discovered by the explorer, and of which 
the Chambesi — almost a system of rivers itself — is the 
largest affluent yet discovered. Should Dr. Living- 
stone's hypothesis of an effluent from the west shore 
of Tanganyika Lake not be sustained, and its waters 
found to procure outlet by Lake Nyassa and the 
Zambesi, his future discoveries will in all probability 
show a similar formation of the continent in east cen- 
tral Africa to that which he discovered to be the fact 
when he explored Lake Dilolo in the land of the 
Balonda. 

The explorers remained in Ujiji until after "merry 
Christmas," both engaged much of the time in writ- 
ing accounts of their explorations, which have ap- 
peared or will yet appear in this volume. Meanwhile, 
they had determined to make a journey together to 
Unyanyembe. This journey is described in tele- 
jjraphic brevity : 



196 Stanley's story; or, 

KwiHARA, Unyanyembe, February fii, 1872. 

After spending Christmas at Ujiji Dr. Livingstone, escorted by the New 
VORK Herald Expedition, composed of forty Wanguana soldiers, weU armed, 
left for Unyanyembe on the 26th of December, 1871. 

In order to arrive safely, untroubled by wars and avaricious tribes, we sketched 
oat a road to Unyanyembe, thus : — 

Seven days by water south to Urimba. 

Ten days acrosc the uninhabited forests of Kawendi 

Twenty days through Unkonongo, direct east. 

Twelve days north through Unkonongo 

Thence five days into Unyanyembe, where we arrived without adventure of 
»ny kind, except killing zebras, buffaloes, and giraffes, after fifty-four days' traveL 

The expedition suffered considerably from famine, and your correspondent 
horn fever, but these are incidental to the march in this country. 

The Doctor tramped it on foot like a man of iron. On arrival at Unyan- 
yembe I found that the Englishman Shaw whom I had turned back as useless, 
had about a month after his return succumbed to the climate of the interior and 
bad died, as well as two Wanguana of the expedition who had been left behind 
sick. Thus during less than twelve months William Lawrence Farquhar, of 
Leith, Scotland, and John William Shaw, of London, England, the two white 
men I had engaged to assist me, had died ■ also eight baggage carriers and eight 
soldiers of the expedition had died. 

I was bold enough to advise the Doctor to permit the expedition to escort 
him to Unyanyembe, through the country it was made acquainted with while go- 
ing to Ujiji, for the reason that were he to sit down at Ujiji until Mirambo was 
disposed of he might remain a year there, a prey to high expectations, ending 
always in bitter disappointment. I told him, as the Arabs of Unyanyembe were 
not equal to the task of conquering Mirambo, that it were better he should ac- 
company the Herald expedition to Unyanyembe, and there take possession of 
the last lot of goods brought to him by a caravan which left the seacoast simul- 
taneously with our expedition. 

The Doctor consented, and thus it was that he came so far back as Unyan- 
yembe. 

The " Herald" correspondent complains with much 
earnestness that Dr. Livingstone has been neglected 
by the British consulate at Zanzibar. Handsomely 
admitting the liberality of the British people and 
government, he has hearty denunciations for those in 
authority at Zanzibar. The contrast of their insuf- 
ficiency with the enterprise of the " Herald" expe- 
dition is remarkable. Mr. Stanley says: "Within 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 1 97 

the time that the British Consuls men took to con- 
vey Livingstone's goods and letters a distance of only 
525 miles, the Herald Expedition was formed, and 
marched 2,059 English statute miles, and before the 
fourteenth month of its departure from the seacoast 
the Herald Expedition will have arrived at the sea- 
coast, be paid off and disbanded. In the matter of 
supplies, then, being sent to Livingstone semi-an- 
nually or annually there is no truth whatever. The 
cause is extreme apathy at Zanzibar and the reckless 
character of the men sent. Where English gentle- 
men are so liberal and money so plentiful it should be 
otherwise." 

Upon this very delicate subject the *' Herald" itsell 
editorially remarks : 

" On the question of Livingstone's having received 
the supplies sent him by his friends in England these 
letters will throw a startling light. The carelessness, 
theft, and general mismanagement which overtook 
the stores forwarded by the British Consulate at 
Zanzibar, usually wasted and frittered these almost 
entirely away before they had time to reach him. This 
cannot be better stated than in the Herald com- 
mander's words : ' Your correspondent begs to inform 
his friends that the Herald Expedition found him 
turned back from his explorations when on the eve oi 
being terminated thoroughly by the very men sent to 
him by the British Consulate ; that the Expedition 
found him sitting down at Ujiji utterly destitute, 
robbed by the very men sent by the British Consul- 
ate at Zanzibar with his caravan ; that the Herald 



198 Stanley's story; or, 

Expedition escorted him to Unyanyembe only in 
time to save his last stock of goods, for they were 
rapidly being made away with by the very men en- 
trusted by the British Consulate with the last lot of 
goods ; that it was only by an accident that your cor- 
respondent saw a packet of letters addressed to Liv- 
ingstone, and so, forcibly, took one of Livingstone s 
men to carry the letters to his employer.'" 

The commander of the Search Expedition supplied 
Dr. Livingstone with such supplies as he could com- 
mand, in which were several bales of mixed cloths, 
about one thousand pounds of assorted beads — all 
this is African money — a large quantity of brass 
wire, a portable boat, revolvers, carbines, and ammu- 
nition. 

And thus Mr. Stanley was ready to depart for the 
sea coast Bidding the great explorer farewell, he 
left Kwihara on March 14, 1872, bending his course 
toward Zanzibar by the usual caravan track. At 
Zanzibar he forwarded " men and means" to the ex- 
plorer of' whom he had learned to think so highly, by 
the aid of which he was doubtless the better enabled 
to make his departure from Unyanyembe, and with 
more confident anticipations of success. 

Meanwhile the chief of the successful Search Expe- 
dition discharged his men at Zanzibar, and by the way 
of Bombay, thence to Aden in southwestern Arabia, 
the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal, found his way rapidly 
to the abodes of those races of civilized men who had 
been astonished and gratified by the summary of the 
remarkable success of his enterprise which had pre- 
ceded him. 



CHAPTER XI. 

INTELLIGENCE OF THE SUCCESS OF THE « HERALD »» 
ENTERPRISE. 

Mr. Stanley's Despatches to the " Herald " — They Create a Profound Sensa- 
tion—The Question of Authenticity of his Reports — Conclusive Proof Thereof — 
Testimony of the English Press, John Livingstone, Earl Granville, and the 
Queen of England Herself — Mr. Stanley's Reception in Europe — At Paris — In 
London — The Brighton Banquet — Honors from the Queen. 

Mr. Stanley's despatches to the " Herald " were sent 
through the London bureau of that office. The noted 
telegram printed on the morning of July 2, 1872, an- 
nouncing his arrival at Zanzibar and the discovery of 
Livingstone, created a profound sensation. Followed 
by other cablegrams giving reports of his journey 
towards Europe and of his reception at Paris and else- 
where, the intelligence was received with almost as 
much avidity as the news which came from day to day 
of the Franco-German war, or that of the attempted 
revolution in Paris. 

To some, however, the reports of Mr. Stanley's 
great success were incredible. There were those who 
did not believe he had seen Livingstone, and who did 
believe that the story of the meeting — with, of course, 
all the correspondence from Zanzibar, Unyanyembe, 
Ujiji, and elsewhere — was but an adroitly-devised ro- 
mance, after the fashion of that of Ali Moosa, to cover 
up inglorious failure. It is needless now to fully state 

199 



200 STANLEY^S STORY; OR, 

the arguments upon which this incredulity was based. 
Perhaps newspaper jealousy had something to do 
with it. Certainly it was a matter of deep chagrin to 
many Englishmen that the British Government, upon 
whose soil the. sun never sets, should have been totally 
eclipsed by the enterprise of private citizens of a rival 
nationality. Then there were certain little errors — 
chiefly misprints and the excusable mistakes of tele- 
graphing long despatches great distances — which were 
claimed by the doubting as showing that the so-called 
great Special Search Expedition of the "Herald" was 
but a magnificent hoax, after all. Moreover, the uni- 
versal interest manifested in the subject gave a splen- 
did opportunity to adventurers, both male and female, 
to ventilate themselves and become public characters. 
Hence, those who had known Mr. Stanley as a native 
of Wales, and not of Missouri, or of this, that, or the 
other country ; who knew that he had not been a cor- 
respondent as had been generally stated ; and, in fine, 
who knew that many assertions in regard to him were 
untrue — these adventurers became even more numer- 
ous than the celebrated cow of the crumpled horn 
which originated the terrible conflagration of Chicago, 
and then, with miraculous self-multiplication, surpassed 
in number the cattle of a thousand hills, and, mourn- 
fully ruminating over her sad mishap in kicking over 
the kerosene lamp, became the observed of all observ- 
ers in all Christian lands, and at the same instant of 
astronominal and clock time. 

It were needless to disguise the fact, however, that 
the statements of those incredulous of the Search 
Expedition's wonderful success, being for some time 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 20I 

constantly iterated and reiterated through the press, 
had considerable effect upon the public mind, and ac- 
tually left it for a period in a state of painful uncer- 
tainty in regard to the fate of the great explorer, the 
truth in regard to whom was earnestly desired by all 
intelligent persons throughout Christendom. Happily, 
the authenticity of Mr. Stanley's reports were placed 
beyond reasonable doubt by a mass of testimony 
against which no one could dispute. 

Much of that testimony has already appeared in 
this volume, different portions in their appropriate 
places. These are : 

I — ^The letters of Dr. Livingstone to Earl Granville, 
which were published by authority of the British Gov- 
ernment. In these letters the African explorer not 
only gratefully alludes to Mr. Stanley, but expressly 
says his despatches are entrusted to his care because 
of the great traveller's belief in Mr. Stanley's enter- 
prise and capacity to accomplish whatever he might 
undertake. In one of these despatches Dr. Living- 
stone also states that he had given to the custody of 
Mr. Stanley his journal of explorations, sealed, to be 
delivered to his daughter when the commander of the 
Search Expedition of the " Herald " should arrive in 
England. 

2. — Upon Mr. Stanley's arrival in England, this 
journal was promptly forwarded to Miss Livingstone. 
Her acknowledgment was published In many English 
and American journals. It was as follows : 

Kelly Wemyss Bay, by Greenock, \ 
August 6th, 1872. / 
Dear Sir. — I write to say that I received last Saturday my father's letters 
and the diary which were entrusted to you by him. 



202 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

I wish also to express to you my heartfelt gratitude for going in search of ray 
father, and aiding hirp so nobly and bringing the long-looked-for letters safely. 

Believe me, yours truly, 
Henry M. Stanley, Esq. AGNES LIVINGSTONE. 

3. — Dr. Livingstone's letter of thanks to James Gor- 
don Bennett, Esq., Jr., the handwriting of which was 
pubHshed in facsimile in the " Herald," and fully sub- 
stantiated by Mr. John Livingstone, of Canada, brother 
of the explorer, and more familiar with him and his 
handwriting than any man living. 

4. — The letter of John Livingstone to Mr. Blake, 
American Consul at Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada, 
which was accompanied by a letter from Dr. Living- 
stone, proving handwriting, and forwarded to the 
*' Herald " through the Department of State at Wash- 
ington. This letter follows : 

LiSTOWELL, August 24, 1 872. 

F. N. Blake, Esq., United States Consul, Hamilton, Ontario. 

Dear Sir. — Would you kindly oblige me by conveying in your official capac- 
ity to Mr. Bennett, proprietor of the New York " Herald," and also to Mr. Stanley, 
the leader of the " Herald Livingstone Search Expedition," my warmest congratu- 
lations on the successful issue of that expedition. 

Having noticed a number of articles in the public press reflecting doubts on 
the veracity of Mr. Stanley and the " Herald," I am glad to be able to say that 
I place the most implicit confidence in the statements of Mr. Stanley and the 
" Herald." 

I can also assure you that Dr. Livingstone holds the American Government 
and people in the highest estimation, principally on account of the late abolition 
of slavery in the United States, and I trust that his persistent efforts to check the 
nefarious traffic in slaves in Africa will be crowned with success. 

I am, yours respectfully, 

JOHN LIVINGSTONE. 

5. — The Royal Geographical Society of London, 
fully persuaded of the authenticity of Mr. Stanley's 
reports, tendered him a formal reception at Brighton. 
The meeting occurred, and caused a great deal of 
comment. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 203 

6. — The Sovereign of England herself, on more 
than one occasion, tendered special honors to Mr. 
Stanley on account of his success In finding Dr. Liv- 
ingstone. 

Evidence like this was not to be shaken by the 
asseverations of penny-a-llners. It was regarded by 
the candid as absolutely conclusive. Such, it is be- 
lieved, would have been the result had Mr. Stanley 
been a British subject instead of an American citizen. 
As the fact is, the case for the "Herald" Expedition 
was almost Immeasurably stronger. It was a matter 
of profound chagrin to most of the English people 
•that an American enterprise should be successful in 
the search for one of the most Illustrious of English- 
men, whilst English expeditions should have failed. 
Under such circumstances Mr. Stanley's proofs had to 
be absolutely unassailable and his credentials unan- 
swerably satisfactory, or they would not have been 
received at all. Both majesty and ministry would havt 
given the commander of the American enterprise the 
coldest possible shoulder. Instead, they crowned him 
with laurels. The only conclusion with reasonable 
minds could be that the " Herald " expedition was a 
splendid success, and further doubt of it would only 
have been stupid and cruel skepticism.* 

^ It is not believed that anything further is needed to convince the public of 
what most of the intelligent public is already convinced ; but it may be well to 
place on record the statements of a number of prominent journals of the world, and 
reference to the action of certain learned societies. 

On July 4th, 1872, the London *' Morning Post " said : 

" Far surpassing everything of local import in interest just now is the informa- 
tion afforded by the New York ' Herald ' to the London press of the discovery of 
Dr. Livingstone. Far surpassing everything which has been hitherto achieved by 



204 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

From Zanzibar Stanley sailed across the Indian 
Ocean to Bombay, whence he transmitted despatches 
announcing the success which had crowned his long 
labors and journeyings. It was this intelligence, trans- 
mitted so fully through the London office of the New 

journalistic enterprise is the discovery of the great African explorer — concerning 
whose fate the peoples of every civilized state in the world have been anxious for 
many years — by the special correspondent of a daily newspaper commissioned to 
find him. We are accustomed to laugh on this side of the Atlantic at the rage 
which prevails for a knowledge of what are classed as ' big things ' among our 
American kinsmen ; but it is not only with a feeling of satisfaction, but also of 
kindred pride, that we express our admiration of this wonderful undertaking, 
which was conceived and has been carried to such a successful issue by the pro- 
prietor of our New York contemporary." 

The London " Telegraph " of the same date says : 

" Yesterday we, in company with the whole people of Britain, listened to the 
narration of the outlines of a tale describing the accomplishment of a work as 
daring in its execution as that of Vasco de Gama, as solitary in its accompaniment 
as that of Robinson Crusoe, and quite as romantic in its progress as that of Marco 
Polo. The mind delights to realize, even in imagination, the moment' when the 
gallant and indefatigable Stanley won his way in front of his little band of follow- 
ers — making up in noise what it lacked in numbers — to the outskirts of Ujiji; and 
we must, all of us, envy the republic of the United States the fact that the Ameri- 
can flag was carried proudly at the head of his force in happy agreement, and that 
under the banner of the Stars and Stripes he afforded succor to the lonely Briton." 

And thus the London " Daily News ": 

" The extraordinary narrative which has just been communicated to the world 
by the New York * Herald,' supplies one of the most exciting stories which civil- 
ization has had since the revelation of the startling truths of Bruce. Mr. Stanley 
gives to his collation a somewhat picturesque coloring, but the grand fact remains 
that he found Livingstone notwithstanding, and not, as Sir Henry Rawlinson con- 
jectured lately, that Livingstone found Stanley. It is not easy to imagine an 
enterprise more full of toil and peril than this strange journey of the lonely 
American, attended, to be sure, by a small but reluctant escort, in the hitherto 
trackless wilds of Africa and among people of native tribes of unknown names. 
It is wholly impossible not to admire the daring and perseverance which the 
American discovery has crowned with triumph." 

Said the Edinburgh (Scotland) " Courant" : 

" It is long since the columns of a newspaper have contained so vividly roman- 
tic and so startlingly wonderful a story as that which has just been told to us of the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 205 

York "Herald," which so gratifyingly startled the 
world about the time of the anniversary of American 
independence in 1872. From Bombay, Mr. Stanley 
proceeded to Europe by way of the Suez canal, reach- 
ing Aden, southwestern Arabia, July 11; Port Said, the 

fortunes that befell Mr. Stanley in his quest after Livingstone, and of the 
most strange circumstances under which the object of that quest was fulfilled. 
The whole narrative reads, indeed, more like a forgotten episode from the travels 
of some Marco Polo or Vasco de Gama than, as it is, a truthful and unvarnished 
extract from the severe chronicle of nineteenth century fact." 

This brief extract from the London " Globe " of July 9 : 

** The final discovery of Dr. Livingstone would seem to have been a bitter 
disappointment to a large class of his fellow countrymen. The doubt and mys- 
tery which hung around his fate promised to produce a perennial stream of quasi- 
scientific gossip, and to yield an endless crop of letters to the * Times.' As it is, 
those * interested ' in the matter are reduced to patching the rags of the worn-out 
controversy." 

The London " Times " of July 15th contained a long letter from Mr. Charles 
Beke, in which he fully answers a number of criticisms upon the Livingstone- 
Stanley despatches, the said criticisms having originated in British chagrin, not 
altogether inexcusable, at the fine success of the American enterprise. That great 
journal of July 27th editorially says : 

** To the enterprise of an American newspaper we are indebted for trustworthy in- 
formation that Dr. Livingstone still lives and prosecutes his unexampled researches." 

The London " Advertiser " of the date last mentioned also published a long 
leading article upoii the subject, beginning : 

" In another column we publish the first letter from Dr. Livingstone which 
has been received in England. By the energy of the proprietor of the New 
York ♦ Herald ' the great English traveller has been found and succored at a mo- 
ment when he seemed to be upon his * last legs. ' In his own words, when Stan- 
ley arrived at Ujiji, * he thought he was dying upon his feet.* " 

The London " Standard " of July 26th remarked with emphasis : 
" All doubts concerning the bona fides of Mr. Stanley's narratives of his 
adventures in Africa will now be laid at rest by the arrival of Dr. Livingstone's 
letters. We shall, apparently, have to wait a little for the publication of the 
geographical despatches, as the report of an intended meeting of the Geogra- 
phical Society on Monday for the purpose of hearing them read is unfounded. 
But it is satisfactory to feel that even the very faint suspicions cast on the au- 
thenticity of Mr. Stanley's story are dissipated, and that we may absolutely rely 
upon the information which that gallant and triumphant traveller has brought home." 



2o6 Stanley's story; or, 

head of the Suez canal, on the i8th; and arrived at 
Marseilles, in France, on the 24th. Here he was re- 
ceived with kindest welcome, and to some extent be- 
sieged by gentlemen of his own profession, who trans- 
mitted to their journals accounts of his doings. At 

The Manchester (England) " Guardian" of July 29th, in an elaborate article 
in criticism of the English authorities because they had not organized a success- 
ful expedition, and had given the great explorer just cause for complaint, says 
the subject is one " which can be matter of no agreeable examination for any 
Englishman." And it concludes: 

" Our magnificently equipped expedition did simply nothing ; and it was re- 
served for Mr. Stanley, after his return to the coast, to organize a caravan with 
stores for Dr. Livingstone. * Before we left Zanzibar,' says Mr. New, * a caravan 
numbering fifty-seven men was packed, signed, sealed, addressed, and despatched, 
like so many packets of useful commodities, to the service and succor of Dr. 
Livingstone.' What says England to all this ?" 

The Leeds (England) " Mercury" of the date last mentioned remarks: 
" The success of Mr, Stanley in his search for Dr. Livingstone is one of the 
most brilliant chapters in the history of newspaper enterprise. The expedition 
was an unprecedented one, and when it was first reported in this country there 
were few who did not laugh at it as a Yankee notion, conceived and started for 
the glorification of the New York ' Herald ' and to gratify the vanity of Mr. 
James Gordon Bennett. The result has shown not only how little there was to 
laugh at, but how much there was to admire in such a project. " 

The journals of continental Europe were not less emphatic in awarding un- 
mixed praise to the successful expedition of the American journal, and Geo- 
graphical Societies, from Italy to Russia, awarded gold medals to Mr. Stanley in 
recognition of his services in behalf of geographical knowledge. 

Earl Granville, upon the receipt of Dr. Livingstone's despatches, forwarded 
from Paris by Mr. Stanley, directed an official acknowledgment, which was as 
follows : 

"Foreign Office, August i, 1872. 
" Sir — I am directed by Earl Granville to acknowledge the receipt of a pack- 
age containing letters and despatches from Dr. Livingstone, which you were good 
enough to deliver to Her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris for transmission to this 
department, and I am to convey to you His Lordship's thanks for taking charge 
of these interesting documents. 

" I am, your most obedient, humble servant, 

"ENFIELD. 
** Henry M.Stanley, Esq." 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 207 

Paris a few days afterwards he was received with ex- 
hilarating hospitality by the American residents of the 
city, and was greatly lionized generally. Breakfasting 
with Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, American Minister, he 
there met among other distinguished guests, General 
William T. Sherman, the commanding officer of the 
Army of the United States, about completing a tour 
of Europe and the Levant. The General occupied 

And on the next day Earl Granville himself wrote the following letter. 

"August 2, 1872. 
** Sir — I was not aware until you mentioned it that there was any doubt as to 
the authenticity of Dr. Livingstone's despatches, which you delivered to Lord 
Lyons on the 31st of July; but, in consequence of what you have said, I have 
inquired into the matter, and I find that Mr. Hammond, the Under Secretary of 
the Foreign Office, and Mr. Wyld, the head of the Consular and Slave Trade 
Department, have not the slightest doubt as to the genuineness of the papers 
which have been received from Lord Lyons, and which are being printed. 

" I cannot omit this opportunity of expressing to you my admiration of the 
qualities which have enabled you to achieve the object of your mission, and to 
attain a result which has been hailed with so much enthusiasm both in the United 
States and in this country. 

" I am, sir, your obedient, 

"GRANVILLE. 
" Henry M. Stanley, Esq." 

As if all this were not enough we have the testimony of the Queen's speech, 
delivered for Queen Victoria by commission, on the occasion of the prorogation of 
Parliament, on Saturday, August 10, 1872. The Queen said: "My govern- 
ment has taken steps intended to prepare the way for dealing more effectually 
with the slave trade on the east coast of Africa." The London " Times " of 
the following Monday, in commenting on this portion of Her Majesty's speech, 
said: 

" This paragraph is the most significant part of the throne speech, and we sup- 
pose it is not an error to connect the announcement which has just been made by 
Her Majesty with the recent discovery of Dr. Livingstone and the despatches t® 
the Foreign Office brought by Mr. Stanley, of the New York ' Herald,' from the 
great traveler." 

It would be impossible, it is believed, to more completely demonstrate the 
hearty acknowledgment of the British Government of the success of the Ameri- 
can enterprise — an acknowledgment which no earthly power but that of ujir 
answerable truth could have compelled that Government to make. 
17 



2o8 Stanley's story; or, 

much of the time in examining Mr. Stanley's maps, and 
discharging some of his fund of caustic humor on the 
prevalence of the East African slave trade. On July 
30th, Minister Washburne and many other Americans 
in Paris extended a formal invitation to Mr. Stanley 
to meet them at a banquet, where they might in a 
body testify their " high appreciation of the indomit- 
able courage, energy, and perseverance which crowned 
with such brilliant success your efforts to find Dr. 
Livingstone, as well as to express their sense of the 
enterprise and liberality of the New York * Herald ' in 
sending you forth on such an extraordinary mission." 

Mr. Stanley's reply to this cordial invitation was so 
modest, so happily expressed, that it is worthy of a 
place here : 

Hotel Du Helder, Paris, July 30, 1872. 
Gentlemen — I have received your letter of this date asking me to accept the 
compliment of a dinner from my compatriots and friends now resident in Paris, 
to be given in acknov/ledgment of the " enterprise and liberality of the New 
York Herald " in sending out an expedition in search of Dr. Livingstone, as 
well as of the extraordinary good fortune and perfect success which, under 
Providence, attended the footsteps of the expedition I had the honor to com- 
mand. Gentlemen, believe me, I am deeply conscious of the great honor you 
would do me, and through me not only to the journal I have the pleasure of serv- 
ing, but to the patient, resolute, brave and Christian gentleman whom I left in 
Central Africa. I therefore gladly accept your invitation, and shall be pleased to 
meet you July 31 at any house or place that may be deemed most convenient. I 
have the honor to be, gentlemen, your obedient and humble servant, 

HENRY M. STANLEY. 
To His Excellency E. B. Washburne, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United 
States of America, and many others. 

The meeting was one of great enj'oyment. The 
American Minister, after a happy speech, richly 
flavored with American allusions, proposed the guest 
of the evening — " Henry M. Stanley, the discoverer 
of the discoverer: we honor him for his courage 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AF^IICA. 209 

energy, and fidelity. We rejoice In the triumphant 
success of his mission, which has gained him Imperish- 
able renown and conferred additional credit on the 
American name." To this the traveller responded 
felicitously, and was specially eloquent when speaking 
of the great explorer of Africa. A number of dis- 
tinguished gentlemen — artists, journalists, public men 
^ — addressed the meeting. The assemblage adjourned 
at a late hour, Mr. Stanley strongly impressed with 
the difference between a Parisian banquet and an 
African supper of manioc and hippopotamus. Other 
like honors flew upon him, thick and fast. From 
scientific and literary bodies and from distinguished 
persons he received invitations to accept which would 
have occupied him a year. These things do not go to 
the author of a hoax, however magnificent. 

The traveller-correspondent could not long remain 
at the fashionable metropolis, and at once departed 
for England. His reception in England was most 
cordial on the part of most Intelligent persons, but 
there was a feeling of national chagrin, if one may so 
speak, on account of the discovery of Dr. Livingstone 
having been brought about through American enter- 
prise, which vented Itself in no little carping criticism 
and the discharge of British atrabilariousness. Hence 
at once originated that skepticism In regard to the 
discovery of the great explorer which continued to 
becloud some minds and journals for a number of 
weeks. But the publication of Dr. Livingstone's sev- 
eral official despatches — already largely quoted from 
in this work — and the prompt production of other 
evidence, heretofore mentioned, brought the English 



2IO STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

people quite generally to an acknowledgment of the 
truth. At the annual meeting of the British Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science, which convened 
at Brighton, August 14th, W. B. Carpenter, LL.D., in 
the chair, Mr. Stanley's successful mission was hand- 
somely mentioned. He was twice compelled to rise, 
in acknowledgment of calls and cheers. Ex-Emperor 
Napoleon III. of France, was present and joined in the 
applause. Here at another meeting, Mr. Stanley read a 
paper on Tanganyika Lake, which was greatly praised. 
About this time there were many meetings of scientific 
associations at Brighton, to all of which Mr. Stanley 
was invited. On the occasion of what has been called 
"the Brighton Banquet," it being a dinner given to the 
British Association by the Brighton and Sussex Medi- 
cal Society, Mr. Stanley appeared late in the evening, 
and, being soon called out, responded to some remarks 
of a previous speaker in such way as to create some 
feeling. Good nature at last prevailed, and harmony 
was restored among the English savants. 

But his honors in England did not stop below the 
recognition of his fine success by royalty itself. Early 
in September he was invited to an interview with 
Queen Victoria, and afterwards dined with her and 
the members of the royal family present at Balmoral. 
Upon this occasion the Queen is reported to have 
expressed to him in the most warm and friendly terms 
her congratulations on the successful result of the 
American enterprise in furnishing intelligence of the 
English traveller in Africa, his condition of health, 
his discoveries, and his hopes for the future previous to 
his return to Great Britain. 



CHAPTER XIL 

DR. LIVINGSTONE STILL IN AFRICA. 

The Great Explorer Still in Search of the Sources of the Nile — His Letters to 
the English Government on His Explorations — Correspondence with Lord 
Stanley, Lord Clarendon, Earl Granville, Dr. Kirk and James Gordon Bennett, 
Jr. — His Own Descriptions of Central Africa and the Supposed Sources of the 
Nile — The Country and People — A Nation of Cannibals — Beautiful Women — 
Gorillas — The Explorer's Plans for the Future. 

When Mr. Stanley bade good-bye to Dr. Living- 
stone in Unyanyembe, the explorer entrusted to the 
care of the correspondent despatches to the govern- 
ment, his journal, addressed to his daughter, and 
copies of letters of which former messengers had been 
robbed. The letters, old and new, to the representa- 
tive of the British government at Zanzibar, Dr. Kirk, 
and to different members of the British cabinet, were 
allowed to be published. They give a full account of 
Dr. Livingstone's explorations among the supposed 
true sources of the Nile, and abundantly establish the 
complete success of the " Herald" search expedition. 
The letters to the British authorities thus sent to the 
press, August i, 1872, through the courtesy of Earl 
Granville, were : i. A letter from Dr. Livingstone to 
Lord Stanley, under date of November 15, 1870; 2. 
Two. letters of November 1, i87i,to Lord Clarendon; 

3. A letter of November 14, 1 871, to Earl Granville; 

4, Letter of October 30, 1871, to Dr. Kirk, British 
Consul at Zanzibar; 5. Letter of December 18, 1871 

ZIJ 



212 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

to Earl Granville; 6. Letter of February 20, 1872, to 
Earl Granville. 

The first of these despatches to his government is 
from " Bambarre, Manyema country, say about one 
hundred and fifty miles west of Ujiji, Nov. 15, 1870," 
addressed to Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs. In this dispatch, much Is contained 
which Dr. Livingstone orally related to Mr. Stanley, 
of the " Herald," and which has already appeared in 
this work. The country of the Manyema, reputed 
cannibals, is described generally thus : 

"The country Is extremely beautiful, but difficult 
to travel over. The mountains of light gray granite 
stand like islands in new red sandstone, and moun- 
tain and valley are all clad in a mantle of different 
shades of green. The vegetation is indescribably 
rank. Through the grass — if grass it can be called, 
which is over half an inch in diameter in the stalk 
and from ten to twelve feet high — nothing but ele- 
phants can walk. The leaves of this megatherium grass 
are armed with minute spikes, whlch^ as we worm our 
way along elephant walks, rub disagreeably on the 
side of the face where the gun is held, and the hand 
is made sore by fending it off the other side for hours. 
The rains were fairly set in by November; and in 
the mornings, or after a shower, these leaves were 
loaded with a moisture which wet us to the bone. 
The valleys are deeply undulating, and in each innu- 
merable dells have to be crossed. There may be 
only a thread of water at the bottom, but the mud, 
mire or {scotti(e) 'glaur' Is grevious; thirty or forty 
yards of the path on each side of the stream are 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 21 3 

worked by the feet of passengers into an adhesive 
compound. By placing a foot on each side of the 
narrow way one may waddle a little distance along, 
but the rank crop of grasses, gingers, and bushes can- 
not spare the few inches of soil required for the side 
of the foot, and down he comes into the slough. The 
path often runs along the bed of the rivulet for sixty 
or more yards, as if he who first cut it out went that 
distance seeking for a part of the forest less dense 
for his axe. In other cases the muale palm, from 
which here, as in Madagascar, grass cloth is woven 
and called by the same name, ' lamba,' has taken pos- 
session of the valley. The leaf stalks, as thick as a 
strong man's arm, fall off and block up all passage 
save by a path made and mixed up by the feet of 
elephants and buffaloes ; the slough therein is groan- 
compelling and deep. 

" Some of the numerous rivers which in this region 
flow into Lualaba are covered with living vegetable 
bridges — a species of dark glossy-leaved grass, with 
its roots and leaves, felts itself into a mat that covers 
the whole stream. When stepped upon it yields 
twelve or fifteen inches, and that amount of water 
rises upon the leg. At every step the foot has to be 
raised high enough to place it on the unbent mass in 
front. This high stepping fatigues like walking on 
deep snow. Here and there holes appear which we 
could not sound with a stick six feet long; they gave 
the impression that anywhere one might plump 
through and finish the chapter. Where the water is 
shallow the lotus, or sacred lily, sends its roots to the 
bottom and spreads its broad leaves over the float 



214 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

ing bridge so as to make believe that the mat is its 
own, but the grass referred to is the real felting and 
supporting agent, for it often performs duty as bridge 
where no lilies grow. The bridge is called by Man- 
yema ' kintefwetefwe,* as if he who first coined it was 
gasping for breath after plunging over a mile of it. 

" Between each district of Manyema large belts of 
the primeval forest still stand. Into these the sun, 
though vertical, cannot penetrate, except by sending 
down at midday thin pencils of rays into the gloom. 
The rain water stands for months in stagnant pools 
made by the feet of elephants ; and the dead leaves 
decay on the damp soil, and make the water of the 
numerous rivulets of the color of strong tea. The 
climbing plants, from the size of whipcord to that of 
a man-of-Wctr's hawser, are so numerous the ancient 
path is the only passage. When one of the giant 
trees falls across the road it forms a wall breast high 
to be climbed over, and the mass of tangled ropes 
brought down makes cutting a path round it a work 
of time which travellers never undertake." 

At this time, Dr. Livingstone was not persuaded 
that the Manyema were men-eaters. Toward the 
conclusion of his letter to Lord Stanley, he thus de- 
cribes them : 

*' I lived in what may be called the Tipperary of 
Manyema, and they are certainly a bloody people 
among themselves. But they are very far from be- 
ing in appearance like the ugly negroes on the West 
Coast Finely formed heads are common, and 
generally men and women are vastly superior to the 
slaves of Zanzibar and elsewhere. We must go 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 21 5 

deeper than phrenology to account for their low 
moral tone. If they are cannibals they are not os- 
tentatiously so. The neighboring tribes all assert 
that they are men-eaters, and they themselves 
laughingly admit the charge. But they like to im- 
pose on the credulous, and they showed the skull of 
a recent victim to horrify one of my people. I found 
it to be the skull of a gorilla, or soko — the first I 
knew of its existence here — and this they do eat. 
If I had believed a tenth of what I heard from trad- 
ers, I might never have entered the country. Their 
people told tales with shocking circumstantiality, as 
If of eye witnesses, that could not be committed to 
paper, or even spoken about beneath the breath. 
Indeed, one wishes them to vanish from memory. 
I have not yet been able to make up my mind 
whether the Manyema are cannibals or not. I have 
offered goods of sufficient value to tempt any of 
them to call me to see a cannibal feast in the dark 
forests where these orgies are said to be held, but 
hitherto in vain. All the real evidence yet obtained 
would elicit from a Scotch jury the verdict only of 
' not proven.*" 

The second despatch, a year later, is devoted to the 
expression of thanks to Lord Clarendon, on account 
of the expedition of search under Mr. Young, of 
which an account has already been given ; to an ex- 
planation of Ali Moosa's story of the explorer's 
death, and an earnest request that the money ex- 
pended on him and his fellow-impostors might be re- 
gained. 

The third document of the series, being also a let- 



21 6 Stanley's story; or, 

ter to Lord Clarendon, presents an account of Di 
Livingstone's explorations and views on the water- 
shed of the Nile more m extenso than anywhere else 
given. It is certainly one of the most interesting 
and valuable contributions to modern science. The 
readers of this volume cannot but feel that a large 
share of this interesting document may appropriately 
be quoted here. 

" I have ascertained that the watershed of the Nile 
is a broad upland between ten degrees and twelve de- 
grees south latitude, and from 4,000 to 5,000 feet 
above the level of the sea. Mountains stand on it at 
various points, which, though not apparently very 
high, are between 6,000 and 7,000 feet of actual alti- 
tude. The watershed is over 700 miles in length, 
from west to east. The springs that rise on it are 
almost innumerable — that is, it would take a large 
part of a man's life to count them. A bird's-eye view 
of some parts of the watershed would resemble the 
frost vegetation on window panes. They all begin 
in an ooze at the head of a slightly depressed valley. 
A few hundred yards down the quantity of water from 
oozing earthen sponge forms a brisk perennial burn 
or brook a few feet broad, and deep enough to re- 
quire a bridge. These are the ultimate or primary 
sources of the great rivers that flow to the north in 
the great Nile valley. The primaries unite and form 
streams in general larger than the Isis at Oxford or 
Avon at Hamilton, and may be called secondary 
sources. They never dry, but unite again into four 
large lines of drainage, the head waters or mains of 
the river of Egypt. These four are each called by 



THROUGH THE WlLDS OF AFRICA. 21 7 

the natives Lualaba, which, if not too pedantic, may 
be spoken of as lacustrine rivers, extant specimens of 
those which, in pre-historic times, abounded in Af- 
rica, and which in the south are still called by Bechu- 
anas ' Melapo,' in the north, by Arabs, ' Wadys ;' both 
words meaning the same thing — river bed in which 
no water ever now flows. Two of the four great riv- 
ers mentioned fall into the central Lualaba, or 
Webb's Lake River, and then we have but two main 
lines of drainage as depicted nearly by Ptolemy. 

" In passing over sixty miles of latitude I waded 
thirty-two primary sources from calf to waist deep, 
and requiring from twenty minutes to an hour and 
a quarter to cross stream and sponge. This would 
give about one source to every two miles. A Sua 
hell friend in passing along part of the Lake Bang- 
weolo during six days counted twenty-two from thigh 
to waist deep, This lake is on the watershed, for the 
village at which I observed on its northwest shore 
was a few seconds into eleven degrees south. I tried 
to cross it in order to measure the breadth accu- 
rately. The first stage to an inhabted island was 
about twenty-four miles. From the highest point 
here the tops of the trees, evidently lifted by the 
mirage, could be seen on the second stage and the 
third stage ; the mainland was said to be as far as 
this beyond it. But my canoe men had stolen the 
canoe and got a hint that the real owners were in 
pursuit, and got into a flurry to return home. 

" The length of this lake Is, at a very moderate es- 
timate, 150 miles. It gives forth a large body of wa- 
ter in the Luapula ; yet lakes are In no sense sources 



2i8 Stanley's story; or, 

for no large river begins in a lake ; but this and oth- 
ers serve ah Important purpose In the phenomena of 
the Nile. It Is one large lake, and, unlike the Okara, 
which, according to Suahell, who travelled long in our 
company, is three or four lakes run 5nto one huge 
Victoria Nianza, gives out a large river which, on de- 
parting out of Moero, Is still larger. These men had 
spent many years east of Okara, and could scarcely 
be mistaken in saying that of the three or four lakes 
there only one (the Okara) gives off Its waters to the 
north. The ' White Nile' of Speke, less by a full hali 
than the Shire out of Nyassa (for It Is only eighty or 
niety yards broad), can scarcely be named in compar- 
ison with the central or Webb's Lualaba, of from two 
thousand to six thousand yards, In relation to the 
phenomena of the Nile. The structure and economy 
of the watershed answer very much the same end as 
the great lacustrine rivers, but I cannot at present 
copy a lost despatch which explained that. The 
mountains on the watershed are probably what 
Ptolemy, for reasons now unknown, called the Moun- 
tains of the Moon. From their bases I found that 
the springs of the Nile do unquestionably arise. 
This is just what Ptolemy put down, and is true ge- 
ography. We must accept the fountains, and nobody 
but Philistines will reject the mountains, though we 
cannot conjecture the reason for the name. 

" Before leaving the subject of the watershed, I 
may add that I know about six hundred miles of it 
but am not yet satisfied, for unfortunately the seventh 
hundred is the most interesting of the whole. I have 
a very strong impression that in the last hundred 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 2ig 

miles the tountains of the Nile, mentioned to Hero- 
dotus by the Secretary of Minerva in the city of Sais 
do arise, not Hke all the rest, from oozing earthen 
sponges, but from an earthen mound, and half the 
water flows northward to Egypt, the other half south 
to Inner Ethiopia. These fountains, at no great dis- 
tance off, become large rivers, though at the mound 
they are not more than ten miles apart. That is, one * 
fountain rising on the northeast of the mound be- ' 
comes Bartle Frere's Lualaba, and it flows into one' 
of the lakes proper, Kamolondo, of the central line of 
drainage ; Webb's Lualaba, the second fountain rising 
on the Northwest, becomes (Sir Paraffin) Young's 
Lualaba, which passing through Lake Lincoln and 
becoming Loeki or Lomame, and joining the central 
line too, goes north to Egypt. The third fountain on 
the southwest, Palmerston's, becomes the Liambia or 
Upper Zambesi ; while the fourth, Oswell's fountain, 
becomes the Kafue, and falls into Zambesi in Inner 
Ethiopia. 

" More time has been spent in the exploration than 
I ever anticipated. Many a weary foot I trod ere I 
got a clear idea of the drainage of the great Nile 
valley. The most intelligent natives and traders 
thought that all the rivers of the upper part of that 
valley flowed into Tanganyika. But the barometers 
told me that to do so the water, must flow up hllL 
The great rivers and the great lakes all make their 
waters converge into the deep trough of the valley, 
which is a full inch of the barometer lower than the 
Upper Tanganyika. 

" Let me explain, but in no boastful style, the mis 



2 20 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

takes of others who have bravely striven to solve 
the ancient problenk, and it will be seen that I have 
cogent reasons for following the painful, plodding in- 
vestigation to its conclusion. Poor Speke's mis- 
take was a foregone conclusion. When he discov- 
ered the Victoria Nyansa he at once jumped to the 
conclusion that therein lay the sources of the river 
of Egypt, ' 20,000 square miles of water,' confused 
by sheer immensity. Ptolemy s small lake, ' Coloc, 
is a more correct representation of the actual size ol 
that one of three or four lakes which alone sends 
its outflow to the north. Its name is Okara. Lake 
Kavirondo is three days distant from it, but con- 
nected by a narrow arm. Lake Naibash, or Neibash, 
is four days from Kavirondo. Baringo is ten days 
distant, and discharges by a river, the Nagardabash, 
to the northeast. 

" These three or four lakes, which have been de- 
scribed by several intelligent Suaheli, who have lived 
for many years on their shores, were run into one 
huge Victoria Nyanza. But no sooner did Speke 
and Grant turn their faces to this lake, to prove that 
it contained the Nile fountains, than they turned 
their backs to the springs of the river of Egypt, 
which are between four hundred and five hundred 
miles south of the most southerly portion of tl^e Vic- 
toria Lake. Every step of their heroic and really 
splendid achievement of following the river down 
took them further and further from the sources they 
sought. But for the devotion to the foregone con 
elusion the sight of the little ' White Nile,' as un- 
able to account for the great river, they must have 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 221 

turned off to the west down Into the deep trough 
of the great valley, and there found lacustrine rivers 
amply sufficient to account for the Nile and all its 
phenomena. 

" But all that can in modern times and in common 
modesty be fairly claimed is the re-discovery of what 
had sunk into oblivion, like the circumnavigation of 
Africa by the Phoenician admirals of one of the 
Pharaohs about B. C. 600. He was not believed 
because he reported that in passing round Libya he 
had the sun on his right hand. This, to us who have 
gone round the Cape from east to west, stamps his 
tale as genuine. The predecessors of Ptolemy 
probably gained their information from men who 
visited this very region, for in the second century oi 
our era he gave in substance what we now find to be 
genuine geography. 

" The geographical results of four arduous trips in 
different directions in the Manyema country are 
briefly as follows : — The great river, Webb*s Lualaba, 
in the center of the Nile valley, makes a great bend 
to the west, soon after leaving Lake Moero, of at 
least one hundred and eighty miles; then, turning to 
the north for some distance, it makes another large 
srv\'eep west of about one hundred and twenty miles, 
in the course of which about thirty miles of southing 
are made ; it then draws round to northeast, receives 
the Lomani, or Loeki, a large river which flows 
through Lake Lincoln. After the union a large lake 
is formed, with many inhabited islands in it; but this 
has still to be explored. It is the fourth large lake 
in the central iine of drainage, and cannot be Lake 



22 2 Stanley's story; or, 

Albert; for, assuming Speke's longitude of Ujiji tc 
be pretty correct, and my reckoning not enormously 
wong, the great central lacustrine river is about five 
degrees west of Upper and Lower Tanganyika. 

" Beyond the fourth lake the water passes, it is said, 
into large reedy lakes, and is in all probability Peth- 
erick*s branch — the main stream of the Nile — in dis- 
tinction from the smaller eastern arm which Speke, 
Grant, and Baker took to be the river of Egypt In 
my attempts to penetrate further and further I had 
but little hope of ultimate success, for the great 
amount of westing led to a continued effort to sus- 
pend the judgment, lest, after all, I might be exploring 
the Congo instead of the Nile, and it was only after 
the two great western drains fell into the central 
main, and left but the two great lacustrine rivers of 
Ptolemy, that I felt pretty sure of being on the right 
track. 

" The great bends west probably form one side of 
the great rivers above that geographical loop, the 
other side being Upper Tanganyika and the Lake 
River Albert. A waterfall is reported to exist be- 
tween Tanganyika and Albert Nyanza, but I could 
not go to it ; nor have I seen the connecting link be- 
tween the two — the upper side of the loop — though 
I believe it exists. 

" The Manyema are certainly cannibals, but it was 
long ere I could get evidence more positive than 
would have led a Scotch jury to give a verdict of 
' not proven.' They eat only enemies killed in war ; 
they seem as if instigated by revenge in their man- 
eating orgies, and on these occasions they do not like 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 223 

a stt anger to see them. I offered a large reward in 
vain to any one who would call me to witness a can- 
ibal feast. Some intelligent men have told me that 
the meat is not nice and made them dream of the 
dead. The women never partake, and I am glad oi 
it, for many of them far down Lualaba are very 
pretty ; they bathe three or four times a day and are 
expert divers for oysters. 

" Markets are held at stated times and the women 
attend them in large numbers, dressed in their best 
They are light colored, have straight noses, finely 
formed heads, small hands and feet and perfect forms, 
they are keen traders, and look on the market as a 
great institution; to haggle and joke and laugh and 
cheat seem the enjoyments of life. The population, 
especially west of the river, is prodigiously large. 

" Near Lomani the Bakuss or Bakoons cultivate 
coffee, and drink it highly scented with vanilla. Food 
of all kinds is extremely abundant and cheap. The 
men smelt iron from the black oxide ore, and are 
very good smiths ; they also smelt copper from the 
ore and make large ornaments very cheaply. They 
are generally fine, tall, strapping fellows, far superior 
to the Zanzibar slaves, and nothing of the West Coast 
negro, from whom our ideas of Africans are chiefly 
derived, appears among them ; no prognathous jaws 
barndoor mouth, nor lark heels are seen. Their de- 
fects arise from absolute ignorance of all the world. 

"There is not a single great chief in all Manyema 
No matter what name the different divisions of peo- 
ple bear — Manyema, Balegga, Babire, Bazire, Bokoos 
— there is no political cohesion ; not one king or 

18 



224 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

kingdom. Each head man is independent of every 
other. The people are industrious, and most of them 
cultivate the soil largely. We found them every 
where very honest. When detained at Bambarre we 
had to send our goats and fowls to the Manyema 
villages to prevent them being all stolen by the Zan- 
zibar slaves. 

" Manyema land is the only country in Central 
Africa I have seen where cotton is not cultivated, 
spun, and woven. The clothing is that known in 
Madagascar as ' lambas' or grass cloth, made from 
the leaves of the ' Muale' palm." 

This despatch, it will be observed, is about a year 
later than the one to Lord Stanley, in which the 
statement occurs that the fact as to whether the Man- 
yema were man-eaters was "not proven," though the 
explorer observed that they ate the gorilla, of which 
beast Dr. Livingstone evidently has a rather favora- 
ble opinion, as respects his disposition, and as surely 
holds his gross stupidity as clearly demonstrated. In 
the development of instinct, tlicre apj)ear to be sev- 
eral animals in Africa approaching nearer the capa- 
city of reflection than the gorilla. 

The next despatch is to Earl Granville, and is 
dated at Ujiji, November, 1871. It is almost wholly 
official, and relates in a clear and most forcible man 
ner, the insurmountable difficulties by reason of which 
he had been forced to cease explorations at a time 
when a little longer work would most probably have 
been crowned with complete success. It is in this 
despatch that Dr. Livingstone relates the particulars 
of the horrid massacre at Nyanme, the fearful out- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 225 

lines oi which have appeared in Mr. Stanleys letter 
already quoted. On his return to Ujiji, Dr. Living- 
stone narrowly escaped death three times in a single 
day from the savages, who would not be persuaded 
that he did not belong to " the traders" guilty of the 
massacre. 

The despatch to Dr. Kirk, Consul at Zanzibar, is of 
interest, as showing how the explorer had been an- 
noyed, pained, and his plans frustrated by the ineffi- 
ciency of those charged with sending him supplies 
from Zanzibar. In view of the dispute that has arisen 
upon this subject among certain representatives of 
public opinion in the United States and England, it 
may be well to show whether Dr. Livingstone himself 
thought he had been well or ill treated. In a post- 
script to this communication, he says, with evident 
reluctance and evident feeling : 

" P. S.- -November i6, 1871. — I regret the neces- 
sity of bringing the foregoing very unpleasant -sub- 
ject before you, but I have just received letters and 
information which make the matter doubly serious. 
Mr. Churchill informed me by a letter of September 
19, 1870, that Her Majesty's government had most 
kindly sent ;^i,ooo for supplies, to be forwarded to 
me. Some difficulties had occurred to prevent ;^500 
worth from starting, but in the beginning of Novem- 
ber all were removed. But it appears that you had 
recourse to slaves again, and one of these slaves in- 
forms me that goods and slaves all remained at 
Bagamoio four months, or till near the end of Feb- 
uary, 1871. No one looked near them during that 
time, but a rumor reached them that the Consul was 



226 Stanley's story; or, 

coming, and off they started, two days before your 
arrival, not on their business, but on some private 
trip of your own. These slaves came to Unyan- 
yembe in May last, and there they lay till war broke 
out and gave them, in July, a good excuse to lie there 
still. 

'* A whole year has thus been spent in feasting 
slaves on ;^500 sent by government to me. Like 
the man who was tempted to despair when he 
broke the photograph of his wife, I feel inclined to 
relinquish hope of ever getting help from Zanzibar 
to finish the little work I have still to do. I wanted 
men, not slaves, and free men are abundant at Zanzi- 
bar; but if the matter is committed to Ludha in- 
stead of an energetic Arab, with some little superin- 
tendence by your dragoman or others, I may wait 
twenty years and your slaves feast and fail. 

D. L. 

"I will just add that the second batch of slaves 
had, like the first, two freemen as the leaders, and 
one died of smallpox. The freemen in the first party 
of slaves were Shereef and Awathe. I enclose 
also a shameless overcharge in Ludha's bill. 
$364 o6>^.— D. L. 

This should appear to be a complete justification 
of Mr. Stanley's energetic animadversions upon the 
general maladministration of affairs at Zanzibar by 
the British Consulate there so far as they were re- 
lated to Dr. Livingstone. It should be a source of 
honest congratulation to every American that a 
citizen of the United States, representing one of the 
most widely circulated public journals of the nation, 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 22/ 

energetically sent forward " men, not slaves/' and fur- 
nished supplies by means of which, it may reason- 
ably be expected, the explorer may proceed with his 
great work and accomplish the object so dear to hia 
admirable ambition. 

Dr. Livingstone's next dispatch is to Earl Granville, 
from Ujiji, December i8, 1871. It is almost wholly 
of an official nature, containing his theory, already 
herein set forth, of the watershed of the Nile, but con- 
tains a paragraph relating the arrival of the " Herald' 
expedition, which is well worthy of quotation : 

"A vague rumor reached Ujiji in the beginning oi 
last month that an Englishman had come to Unyan- 
yembe with boats, horses, men, and goods in abund- 
ance. It was in vain to conjecture who this could 
be ; and my eager inquiries were met by answers so 
contradictory that I began to doubt if any stranger 
had come at all. But one day, I cannot say which, 
for I was three weeks too fast in my reckoning, my 
man Susi came dashing up in great excitement, and 
gasped out, 'An Englishman coming ; see him !' and 
off he ran to meet him. The American flag at the 
head of the caravan told me the nationality of the 
stranger. It was Henry M. Stanley, the travelling 
correspondent of the New York ' Herald,' sent by 
the son of the editor, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., at 
an expense of ^5,000, to obtain correct information 
about me if living, and if dead to bring home my 
bones. The kindness was extreme, and made my 
whole frame thrill with excitement and gratitude. I 
had been left nearly destitute by the moral idiot 
Shereef selling off my goods for slaves and ivory for 



2 28 STANLEY'S STORY; OR, 

himself. My condition was sufficiently forlorn, for 1 
had but a few articles of barter left of what I had 
taken the precaution to leave here, in case of extreme 
need. The strange news Mr. Stanley had to tell to 
one for years out of communication with the world 
was quite reviving. Appetite returned, and in a 
week I began to feel strong. Having men and goods 
and information that search for an outlet of the Tan- 
ganyika was desired by Sir Roderick Murchison, we 
went for a month's cruise down its northern end. 
This was a pleasure trip compared to the weary 
tramping of all the rest of my work; but an outflow 
we did not find." 

The opening paragraph of the dispatch from which 
this is taken is so finely characteristic, that it should 
not be omitted. Dr. Livingstone began his letter to 
Lord Clarendon's successor in this beautifully cour- 
teous manner: 

"My Lord — The despatch of Lord Clarendon, dated 
31st May, 1870, came to this place on the 13th ult, 
and its very kindly tone and sympathy afforded me a 
world of encouragement. Your lordship will excuse 
me in saying that with my gratitude there mingled 
sincere sorrow that the personal friend who signed it 
was no more." 

The last of these despatches of the explorer was 
the longest, and, perhaps, the most worthy of his 
fame. Addressed to Earl Granville, it was a clear, 
full statement of the prevalence of the African slave 
trade and a terrible denunciaton of it, together with a 
proposition " which," he says, " I have very much at 
heart- —the possibility of encouraging the native 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. ^31 

Christians of English settlements on the west coast 
of Africa, to remove, by voluntary emigration, to a 
healthy spot on this side the continent." There are 
in Zanzibar a considerable number of British subjects 
from India, called Banians. They are, like all Brit 
ish subjects, prohibited from engaging in the slave 
trade, but shrewdly managing to throw the responsi- 
bility upon the Arabs, they are in fact responsible for 
the slave trade of Zanzibar and all the horrible 
" slaving" of East Africa. " The Manyema cannibals,'' 
says Dr. Livingstone, in this dispatch to Earl Gran- 
ville, " among whom I spent nearly two years, are 
innocents compared with our protected Banian fel- 
low-subjects. By their Arab agents they compass 
the destruction of more human lives in one year than 
the Manyema do for their fleshpots in ten." " Slaves 
are not bought," he says in another place, " in the 
countries to which the Banian agents proceed. In- 
deed it is a mistake to call the system of Ujiji 'slave 
trade ' at all ; the captives are not traded for, but 
murdered for, and the gangs which are dragged coast- 
wise are usually not slaves, but captive free people." 
To eradicate this fearful wrong, the practical remedy 
proposed by the explorer in his letter to Earl Gran 
ville is encouragement by the British government to 
the voluntary emigration of native Christians from 
the English settlements of the West Coast to the 
East Coast. In reply to the argument of the un- 
healthfulness of this portion of Africa he says that 
the fevers are bad enough indeed, but that very much 
more of the disease prevailing is due to intemperance 
and gross licentiousness than fever. The whole dis- 



2^2 STANLEY*S STORY; OR, 

patch IS a demonstration of Dr. Livingstone's earnest 
piety, humanity and practical sagacity. If there are 
some passages in it which show that his Highland 
blood is up, they may be attributed to a fiery hatred 
of injustice. 

These quotations from Dr. Livingstones letters of 
this important period of his life will be appropriately 
concluded with his letter of thanks to the editor of 
the '• Herald": 

" Ujiji, ON Tanganyika, ) 
"East Africa, November, 1871. j 
"James Gordon Bennett, Esq., Jr.: — 

*' My Dear Sir — It is in general somewhat difficult 
to write to one we have never seen — it feels so much 
like addressing an abstract idea — but the presence of 
your representative, Mr. H. M. Stanley, in this distant 
region takes away the strangeness I should otherwise 
have felt, and in writing to thank you for the extreme 
kindness that prompted you to send him, I feel quite 
at home. ' 

" If I explain the forlorn condition in which he 
found me you will easily perceive that I have good 
reason to use very strong expressions of gratitude. 
I came to Ujiji off a tramp of between four hundred 
and five hundred miles, beneath a blazing vertical sun, 
having been baffled, worried, defeated and forced to 
return, when almost in sight of the end of the geo- 
graphical part of my mission, by a number of half- 
caste Moslem slaves sent to me from Zanzibar, in- 
stead of men. The sore heart made still sorer by the 
woful sights I had seen of man's inhumanity to man 
reached and toid on the bodily frame and depressed 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 233 

It beyond measure. I thought that I was dying on 
my feet. It is not too much to say that almost every 
step of the weary sultry way was in pain, and I reach- 
ed Ujiji a mere ' ruckle' of bones. 

" There I found that some five hundred pounds 
sterling worth of goods which I had ordered from 
Zanzibar had unaccountably been entrusted to a 
drunken half-caste Moslem tailor, who, after squander- 
ing them for sixteen months on the way to Ujiji, fin- 
ished up by selling off all that remained for slaves 
and ivory for himself He had "divined" on the Ko- 
ran and found that I was dead. He had also written 
to the Governor of Unyanyembe that he had sent 
slaves after me to Manyema, who returned and re- 
ported my decease, and begged permission to sell of( 
the few goods that his drunken appetite had spared. 
He, Jiowever, knew perfectly well, from men who had 
seen me, that I was alive, and waiting for the goods 
and men ; but as for morality, he is evidently an idiot, 
and there being no law here except that of the dag- 
ger or musket, I had to* sit down in great weakness, 
destitute of everything save a few barter cloths and 
beads., which I had taken the precaution to leave here 
in case of extreme need. The near prospect of beg- 
gary among Ujijians made me miserable. I could 
not despair, because 1 laughed so much at a friend 
who, on reaching the mouth of the Zambezi, said thai 
he was tempted to despair on breaking the photo- 
graph of his wife. We could have no success after 
that. Afterward the idea of despair had to me such 
a strong smack of the ludicrous that it was out of 
the question. 



234 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

** Well, when I had got to about the lowest verge, 
vague rumors of an English visitor reached me. I 
thought of myself as the man who went down from 
Jerusalem to Jericho; but neither priest, Levite, nor 
Samaritan could possibly pass my way. Yet the 
good Samaritan was close at hand, and one of my 
people rushed up at the top of his speed, and, in 
great excitement, gasped out, 'An Englishman com- 
ing ! I see him !' and off he darted to meet him. An 
American flag, the first ever seen in these parts, at 
the head of a caravan, told me the nationality of the 
stranger. I am as cold and non-demonstrative as we 
islanders are usually reputed to be ; but your kind- 
ness made my frame thrill. It was, indeed, over- 
whelming, and I said in my soul, ' Let the richest 
blessings descend from the Highest on you anr'' 
yours!' 

The news Mr. Stanley had to tell was thrilling. 
The mighty political changes on the Continent ; the 
success of the Atlantic cables; the election of Gen- 
eral Grant, and many other topics rivited my atten- 
tion for days together, and had an immediate and 
beneficial effect on my health. I had been without 
news from home for years save what I could glean 
from a few Saturday Reviews and Punch of 1868. 
The appetite revived, and in a week I began to i^^l 
strong again. 

" Mr. Stanley brought a most kind and encourag- 
ing despatch from Lord Clarendon, whose loss I sin- 
cerely deplore, the first I have received from the 
Foreign Office since 1866, and information that the 
British government had kindly sent a thousand 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 235 

pounds sterling to my aid. Up to his arrival I was 
not aware of any pecuniary aid. I came unsalaried, 
but this want is now happily repaired, and I am anxious 
that you and all my friends should know that, though 
uncheered by letter, I have stuck to the task which 
my friend Sir Roderick Murchison set me with 'John 
Bullish' tenacity, believing that all would come right 
at last 

" The watershed of South Central Africa is over 
seven hundred miles in length. The fountains thereon 
are almost innumerable — that is, it would take a 
man's lifetime to count them. From the watershed 
they converge into four large rivers, and these again 
into two mighty streams in the great Nile valley, 
which begins in ten degrees to twelve degrees south 
latitude. It was long ere light dawned on the ancient 
problem and gave me a clear idea of the drainage. I 
had to feel my way, and every step of the way, and 
was, generally, groping in the dark, for who cared 
where the waters ran ? We drank our fill and let 
the rest run by. 

" The Portuguese who visited Cazemba asked for 
slaves and ivory, and heard of nothing else. I asked 
about the waters, questioned and cross-questioned, 
until I was almost afraid of being set down as afflict- 
ed with hydrocephalus. 

"My last work, in which I have been greatly hindered 
from want of suitable attendants, was following the 
central line of drainage down through the country of 
the cannibals, called Manyuema, or, shortly, Manyema 
This line of drainage has four large lakes in it. The 
fourth I was near when obliged to turn. It is from 



236 Stanley's story; or, 

one to three miles broad, and never can be reached 
at any point or at any time of the year. Two west- 
ern drains, the Lupira, or Bartle Frere's River, flow 
into it at Lake Kamolondo. Then the great River 
Lomaine flows through Lake Lincoln into it, too, 
and seems to form the western arm of the Nile, on 
which Petherick traded. 

"Now, I knew about six hundred miles of the 
watershed, and unfortunately the seventh hundred 
is the most interesting of the whole ; for in it, if I am 
not mistaken, four fountains arise from an earthen 
mound, and the last of the four becomes, at no great 
distance off, a large river. Two of these run north 
to Egypt, Lupira and Louraine, and two run south 
into inner Ethiopia, as the Liambai, or upper Zam- 
bezi, and the Kafneare, but these are but the sources 
of the Nile mentioned by the Secretary of Minerva, 
in the city of Sais to Herodotus. I have heard of 
them so often, and at great distances off, that I can- 
not doubt their existence, and in spite of the sore 
longing for home that seizes me every time I think 
of my family I wish to finish up by their rediscovery 

" Five hundred pounds sterling worth of goods 
have again unaccountably been entrusted to slaves, 
and have been over a year on the way, instead of 
four months. I must go where they lie at your ex- 
pense, ere I can put the natural completion to my 
work, 

"And if my disclosures regarding the terrible 
Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the 
east coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater 
matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



237 



together Now that you have done with domestic 
slavery forever, lend us your powerful aid toward this 
great object. This fine country is blighted, as with a 
curse from above, in order that the slavery privileges 
of the petty Sultan of Zanzibar may not be infringed, 
and the rights of the Crown of Portugal, which are 
mythical, should be kept in abeyance till some future 
time when Africa will become another India to Por- 
tuguese slave traders. 

" I conclude by again thanking you most cordially 
lor your great generosity, and am, 

" Gratefully yours, 

"David Livingstone." 




CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SLAVE TRADE OF EAST AFRICA. 

t>r. Lmngstone's Letter upon the Subject to Mr. Bennett — Compares the Slare 
Trade with Piracy on the High Seas — Natives of Interior Africa Average 
Specimens of Humanity — Slave Trade Cruelties — Deaths from Broken Hearts 
— The Need of Christian Civilization — British Culpability. 

While waiting for supplies in Unyanyembe, Dr. 
Livingstone wrote a second letter to Mr. James Gor- 
don Bennett, which was principally devoted to the 
slave trade of East Africa, to greatly aid in the abo- 
lition of which would be more gratifying to the ex- 
plorer's ambition than to discover all the sources of 
the Nile. This might well be supposed from what 
has already been quoted from Dr. Livingstone's de- 
spatches to his government; but inasmuch as he here 
directly appeals to the American people, this volume 
would be incomplete without the remarkable and most 
thrillingly interesting statements of the letter in ques- 
stion. They were sent by cable telegram from Lon- 
don and appeared in the " Herald" newspaper of 
July 27, 1872 : 

" At present let me give a glimpse of the slave 
trade, to which the search and discovery of most of 
the Nile fountains have brought me face to face. The 
whole traffic, whether by land or ocean, is a gross 
outrage on the common law of mankind. It is car- 
ried on from age to age, and, in addition to the evils 
it inflicts, presents almost insurmountable obstacles 

238 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 239 

to intereourse between different portions of the 
human family. This open sore in the world is partly 
owing to human cupidity, partly to the ignorance of 
the more civilized of mankind of the blight which 
lights chiefly on more degraded piracy on the high 
seas, {szc^ It was once as common as slave trading is 
now, but as it became thoroughly known the whole 
civilized world rose against it. 

"In now trying to make Eastern African slave 
trade better known to Americans, I indulge the hope 
I am aiding on, though in a small degree, the good 
time coming yet when slavery as well as piracy will 
be chased from the world. Many have but a faint 
idea of the evils that trading in slaves inflicts on the 
victims and authors of its atrocities. Most people 
imagine that negroes, after being brutalized by a long 
course of servitude, with but few of the ameliorating 
influences that elevate the more favored races, are fair 
average specimens of the African man. Our ideas 
are derived from slaves of the west coast, who 
have for ages been subject to domestic bondage and 
all the depressing agencies of a most unhealthy cli- 
mate. These have told most injuriously on their 
physical frames, while fraud and the rum trade have 
ruined their moral natures so as not to discriminate 
the difference of the monstrous injustice. 

" The main body of the population is living free in 
the interior, under their own chiefs and laws, culti- 
vating their own farms, catching fish in their own 
rivers, or fighting bravely with the grand old deni- 
zens of the forest, which, in more recent continents 
can only be reached in rocky strata or under pereo 



240 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

nial ice. Winwood Reade hit the truth when he said 
the ancient Egyptian, with his large, round, black 
eyes, full, luscious lips, and somewhat depressed nose, 
is far nearer the typical negro than the west coast 
African, who has been debased by the unhealthy land 
he lives in. The slaves generally, and especially 
those on the west coast, at Zanzibar and elsewhere 
are extremely ugly. I have no prejudice against their 
color ; indeed, any one who lives long among them 
forgets they are black and feels they are just fellow- 
men ; but the low, retreating forehead, prognathous 
jaws, lark-heels and other physical peculiarities com- 
mon among slaves and West African negroes, always 
awaken some feelings of aversion akin to those with 
which we view specimens of the Bill Sykes and 
• Bruiser' class in England. I would not utter a syl- 
lable calculated to press down either class more 
deeply in the mire in which it is already sunk, but I 
wish to point out that these are not typical Africans 
any more than typical Englishmen, and that the na- 
tives on nearly all the high lands of the interior 
Continent are, as a rule, fair average specimens of 
humanity. 

"I happened to be present when all the head men 
of the great Chief Msama — who lives west of the 
south end of Tanganyika — had come together to 
make peace with certain Arabs who had burned their 
chief town, and I am certain one could not see more 
finely formed, intellectual heads in any assembly in 
London or Paris, and the faces and forms correspond- 
ed finely with the well-shaped heads. Msama himself 
had been a sort of Napoleon for fighting and con* 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 24 1 

quering In his younger days. He was exactly like 
the Ancient Assyrians sculptured on the Nineveh 
marbles, as NImrod and others, and he showed him- 
self to be one of ourselves by habitually indulging Ir. 
copious potations of beer, called pombe, and had be- 
come what Nathaniel Hawthorne called ' bulbous be- 
low the ribs/ I do not know where the phrase 
'bloated aristocracy' arose. It must be American, foi 
I have had glimpses of a good many English noble- 
men, and Msama was the only specimen of a * bloated 
aristocrat' on whom I ever set eyes. 

" Many of the women are very pretty, and, like all 
ladies, would have been much prettier if they had 
only let themselves alone. Fortunately the dears 
could not change charming black eyes, beautiful fore- 
heads, nicely rounded limbs, well shaped forms and 
small hands and feet, but must adorn themselves, and 
this they do by filing splendid teeth to points like 
cats' teeth. It was distressing, for it made their smile 
like that of crocodile ornaments, scarce. They are 
not black, but of light, warm brown color, and so very 
sisterlsh, if I may use the word. It feels an Injury done 
one's self to see a bit of grass stuck through the cart- 
ilage of the nose so as to bulge out the alee nasi^ or 
winof of the nose of the anatomists. 

" Cazembe's Queen, Moaria Nyombe by name^ 
would be esteemed a real beauty either In London 
Paris, or New York, and yet she had a small hole 
through the cartilage, near the tip of her fine, slightly 
aquiline nose. But she had only filed one side ol 
two of the front of her superb snow-white teeth, and 
then, what a laugh she had ! Let those who wish to 

19 



242 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

know go see her. She was carried to her farm in a 
pony phaeton, which is a sort of throne, fastened on 
two very long poles and carried by twelve stalwart 
citizens. If they take the Punch motto of Cazembe 
— * Niggers don't require to be shot here' — as their 
own, they may show themselves to be men ; but 
whether they do or not Cazembe will show himself a 
man of sterling good sense. 

" Now, these people, so like ourselves externally, 
have brave, genuine human souls. Rua, large sec- 
tions of country northwest of Cazembe, but still in 
same inland region, is peopled with men very like 
those of Wsama and Cazembe. An Arab, Syed Ben 
Habib, was sent to trade in Rua two years ago, and, 
as Arabs usually do where natives have no guns, Syed 
Ben Habib's elder brother carried matters with a high 
hand. The Rua men observed the elder brother 
slept in a white tent, and, pitching spears into it by 
night, killed him. As Moslems never forgive blood, 
the younger brother forthwith ' ran a muck' on all in- 
discriminately in a large district, 

" Let it not be supposed any of these people are 
like American Indians, insatiable, blood-thirsty sav- 
ages, who will not be reclaimed or entertain terms ol 
lasting friendship with fair-dealing strangers. Had 
the actual murderers been demanded, and a little time 
granted, I feel morally certain, from many other in- 
stances among tribes who, like the Ba Rua, have not 
been spoiled by Arab traders, they would all have 
been given up, 

" The chiefs of the country would, first of all, have 
specified the crime of which the elder brother was 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 243 

guilty, and who had been led to avenge it. It is very 
likely they would have stipulated no other should be 
punished but the actual perpetrator, the domestic 
slave acting under his orders being considered free of 
blame. 

•' I know nothing that distinguishes the uncon- 
taminated African from other degraded peoples more 
than their entire reasonableness and good sense. It 
is different after they have had wives, children, and 
relatives kidnapped, but that is more than human 
nature, civilized or savage, can bear. In the chase 
in question indiscriminate slaughter, capture, and 
plunder took place. A very large number of very fine 
young men were captured and secured in chains and 
wooden yokes. 

" I came near the party of Syed Ben Habib, close 
to a point where a huge rent in the Mountain of Rua 
allows the escape of the great river Lualaba out of 
Lake Moora, and here I had for the first time an op- 
portunity of observing the difference between slaves 
and freemen made captive. When fairly across the 
Lualaba, Syed Ben Habib thought his captives safe, 
and got rid of the trouble of attending to and watch- 
ing the chained gangs by taking off both chains and 
yokes. All declared joy and a perfect willingness to 
follow Syed to the end of the world or elsewhere, but 
next morning twenty-two made clear of two moun- 
tains. 

" Many more, seeing the broad Lualaba roll be- 
tween them and the homes of their infancy, lost all 
heart, and in three days eight of them died. They 
had no complaint but pain in the heart, and they 



244 Stanley's story; or, 

pointed out its seat correctly, though many believe 
the heart situated underneath the top of the sternum, 
or breast bone. This to me was the most startling 
death I ever saw. They evidently die of broken- 
heartedness, and the Arabs wondered, seeing they 
had plenty to eat. 

" I saw others perish, particularly a very fine buy 
feen or twelve years of age. When asked where he 
felt ill, he put his hand correctly and exactly over the 
heart. He was kindly carried, and, as he breathed 
out his soul, was laid gently on the side of the path 
The captors are not unusually cruel. They were cal- 
lous. Slaving hardened their hearts. 

" When Syed, an old friend of mine, crossed Lual- 
aba, he heard I was in the village, where a company 
of slave traders were furiously assaulted for three 
days by justly incensed Bobemba. I would not fight 
nor allow my people to fire if I saw them, because 
Bobemba had been especially kind to me. Syed sent 
a party of his own people to invite me to leave the 
villaofe and come to him. He showed himself the 
opposite of hard-hearted ; but slavery hardens within, 
petrifies the feelings, is bad for the victims and ill for 
the victimizers. Once, it is said, a party of twelve, 
who had been slaves in their own country — Cunda or 
Conda, of which Cazemba is chief or general — were 
loaded with large, heavy yokes, which were forked 
trees, about three inches in diameter and seven or 
eight feet long, the neck inserted in the fork and an 
iron bar driven across one end of the fork to the 
other and riveted to the other end, tied at night to 
the tree or ceiling of the hut, and the neck being firm 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 245 

in the fork and the slave held off from unloosing it, 
was excessively troublesome to the wearer, and, when 
marching, two yokes were tied together by tree ends 
and loads put on the slaves' heads beside. 

"A woman, having an additional yoke and load, and 
a child on her back, said to me on passing, ' They are 
killing me. If they would take off the yoke I could 
manage the load and child ; but I shall die with three 
loads.' The one who spoke this did die ; poor little 
girl ! Her child perished of starvation. 

" I interceded some, but when unyoked off they 
bounded into the long grass, and I was greatly 
blamed for not caring in presence of the owners of 
the property. 

"After the day's march under a broiling, vertical 
sun, with yokes and heavy loads, the strongest were 
exhausted. The party of twelve, above mentioned, 
were sitting down singing and laughing. ' Hallo, 
said I, 'these fellows take to it kindly. This must be 
the class for whom philosophers say slavery is the 
natural state ;' and I went and asked the cause of 
their mirth. 

" I had asked aid of their owner as to the meaning 
of the word ' Rukha,' which usually means fly or leap. 
They were using it to express the idea of haunting, 
as a ghost, inflicting disease or death, and the song was: 
'Yes, we going away to Manga, abroad, or white man's 
land, with yoke on our necks ; but we shall have no 
yokes in death, and shall return and haunt and 
kill you.' Chorus then struck in, which wa? the name 
of the man who had sold each of them, and then fol- 
lowed the general laugh, in which at first I saw no 



246 Stanley's story; or, 

bitterness. Tarembee, an old man, at least one hun 
dred and four years, being one of the sellers, in ac- 
cordance with African belief, they had no doubt ol 
being soon able, by ghost power, to kill even him. 

"The refrain was as if: — * Oh ! oh! oh! bird of 
freedom, you sold me.' * Oh ! oh ! oh ! I shall haunt 
you ! Oh ! oh ! oh !' Laughter told not of mirth, but 
of tears, such as were oppressed, and they had no 
comforter. He that is higher than the highest re- 
gardeth.*' 

" If I am permitted," says Dr. Livingstone in con- 
cluding the subject of the slave trade, " in any way to 
promote its suppression, I shall not grudge the toil 
and time I have spent. It would be better to lessen 
this great human woe than to discover the sources of 
the Nile." 

The moral degradation of these people is only to 
be reached and cured, in the deliberate judgment of 
the explorer-missionary, through the means of Chris- 
tian civilization. " The religion of Christ," he says 
with emphasis, " is unquestionably the best for man. 
I refer to it not as the Protestant, the Catholic, the 
Greek, or any other, but to the comprehensive faith 
which has spread more widely over the world than 
most people imagine, and whose votaries, of what- 
ever name, are better than any outside the pale," 
The great end of placing the numerous tribes of 
East and Central Africa under the pure and elevat- 
ing morality of the Christian religion cannot be suc- 
cessful until the suppression of the inhuman slave 
trade, which has its headquarters at Zanzibar, shall 
have been accomplished. It would be unjust to for- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



247 



get that Great Britain has done much, very much, 
for the suppression of this terrible traffic in other 
portions of the globe. It would be unjust to charge 
the government of Great Britain with intentional 
criminality in this case. But it stands proved, by the 
failure of English expeditions to find Dr. Living- 
stone, and by his own positive, earnest testimony, 
that It Is the subjects of the British monarchy who are 
responsible for the existence of the slave trade of 
Zanzibar and all the nameless horrors of the interior 
resulting therefrom. The moral culpability, by reason 
of neglect — not to put the case too strongly^of the 
British government Is therefore made manifest ; and 
of this great national turpitude that government must 
stand convicted before the bar of Christendom. 




CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM OF AFRICA, 

3ome Account of the Beasts, Birds, Reptiles, and Insects of Africa— Living- 
stone's Opinion of the Lion — Elephants, Hippopotami, Rhinoceroses, etc. — 
Wild Animals Subject to Disease — Remarkable Hunting Explorations — 
Gumming Slays more than One Hundred Elephants — Du Chaillu and the 
GoriUa — Thrilling Incidents — Vast Plains Govered with Game — Forests 
Filled with Birds — Immense Serpents — The Python of South Africa — ^Ania 
and other Insects. 

No portion of the globe is so productive of wild 
animals as Africa. There animal life is more exten- 
sive, if we may so say, and more varied than any- 
where else. The domestic animals of that continent 
are not to such extent different from those of other 
parts of the world as to merit special mention, with 
the exception of the camel, without whose aid a large 
portion of the country would be not only uninhabit- 
able but untraversable. The invaluable services 
which this patient but obstinate beast of burden ren- 
ders to the inhabitants of Northern Africa are known 
to all men. In northern Africa and in the central 
portions, horses are numerous and many of them of 
excellent breeds. Here and in many parts of South 
Africa, there are many cattle, used as beasts of bur- 
den and for beef Some of them are noted for the 
prodigious size of their horns. Sheep abound in 
some portions of the continent, but in South Africa 

the flocks are composed almost entirely of goats which 

248 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 249 

subsist better on the dry herbs of the dessert, yield 
more milk, and are considered more palatable food. 

But in respect to wild beasts — all kinds of "game" 
as the sportsman would say — Africa, as has been said 
by Mr. John Bonner, " may be called the region of 
animal life, since there are more than twice the num- 
ber of species in it than in the other quarters of the 
globe." Here are found, in immense numbers, all 
those kinds of animals which fill the strong cages of 
the menageries of Europe and America, of parks, and 
zoological gardens, and many more besides. Here 
are the most abject and degraded specimens of man- 
kind and the most sagacious and lordly wild animals. 
Here are the most beautiful and gentle of birds and 
the most venomous and terrible serpents and reptiles. 
Here are small insects whose attacks are fatal to 
many useful animals, and others — the devouring 
locusts — which in a single day devastate vast sections 
of country. 

The lion, so long regarded as the king of beasts, 
is found in most parts of interior Africa. We have 
already seen that Dr. Livingstone's opinion of this 
beast is not very exalted. It is certainly inferior to 
the African leopard both in beauty and courage. In 
strength and prowess this latter animal is not in- 
ferior to the Asiatic tiger. The hippopotamus, sup- 
posed to be the Behemoth of Job, is found in nearly 
all the rivers of Central and South Africa and the 
Nile. His body is often as large as that of a full- 
grown elephant. A noted African hunter killed one 
with a single ball, which was six feet broad across the 
belly. The skin of an adult hippopotamus, accord- 



250 STANLEYS STORY; Ok, 

ing to Du Chaillu, who shot several and stuffed one, 
is from one and a-half to two Inches thick, and ex- 
tremely solid and tough — quite bullet-proof, In fact, 
except in a few thinner spots, as behind the ear and 
near the eyes. It is devoid of hair with the excep- 
tion of a few short bristly hairs In the tail, and a few 
scattered tufts near the muzzle. The color of the 
skin is a clayey yellow, assuming a roseate hue under 
the belly. After death, the animal becomes a dull 
brownish color. It is successfully hunted by the na- 
tives of east equatorial Africa, who approach within 
a fev«r feet of it, fire their " slugs" at his eye and then 
run for dear life ; for if the animal be not killed the 
hunter surely will be. Gumming, the most success- 
ful of African Nimrods, once slew some ten hippopot- 
ami in the course of a couple of days, and secured 
the carcasses of most of them, dragging them with 
oxen to which were attached strong cables fastened 
to the beasts. The bagging of several tons of edible 
game — the meat of the beast is described by some 
as like beef, by others as like pork — in a day or two 
could not be accomplished elsewhere than in Africa. 
Most of the perennial rivers and even small streams 
of a few feet depth abound in crocodiles. Those of 
South Africa, whose nature and habits are described 
by Dr Livingstone and Gumming, are a different 
species from the crockodile of the Nile, one of the sa- 
cred animals of the Egyptians. They are as great 
in size, however, and, perhaps, greater in voracity. 
Their great numbers, particularly in the waters of 
equatorial Africa, are astonishing. The natives hunt 
them, going in canoes, and using a sort of harpoon 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 25 1 

With which the stout armor, elsewhere impenetrable, 
of the animal is pierced behind the legs. The na- 
tives are fond of the flesh. Though a full-grown 
crocodile will weigh as much as an ox, there is not 
much flesh that is edible. Gumming shot one more 
than twenty feet in length in a stream not more than 
twelve feet wide. "On our return to Damagondai's 
town," says Du Chaillu, "as we were paddling along,' 
I perceived in the distance ahead a beautiful deer,- 
looking meditatively into the waters of the lagoon,* 
of which from time to tim.e it took a drink. I stood 
up to get a shot, and we approached with the utmost 
silence. But just as I raised my gun to fire, a croco 
dile leaped out of the water, and, like a flash, dove 
back again with the struggling animal in his powerful 
jaws. So quickly did the beast take his prey that 
though I fired at him I was too late. I would not 
have believed that this huge and unwieldy animal 
could move with such velocity; but the natives told 
me that the deer often falls prey to the crocodile. 
Sometimes he even catches the leopard, but then 
there is a harder battle than the poor little deer could 
make." 

The rhinoceros, formerly found on the slopes o\ 
Table Mountain, has now been driven far into the 
interior of South Africa, but here these huge ani- 
mals, second only to the elephant and hippopotamus 
in bulk, are found along all the streams and in the 
neighborhood of fountains and pools of water. Dr. 
A. Smith in his "Zoology of South Africa" makes 
three species of rhinoceros. The great hunter, Gum- 
ming, describes what he considers as four different 



252 STANLEYS story; OR, 

kinds. * Dr. Livingstone, however, asserts that theic 
are but two species-— the white and the black — insist- 
ing that all the species made by naturalists beyond 

' * He says : Of the rhinoceros there are four varieties in South Africa distin- 
guished by the Bechuanas by the names of the borel6, or black rhinoceros, the 
keitloa, or two-horned black rhinoceros, the muchocho, or common white rhi- 
noceros, and the kobaoba, or long-horned white rhinoceros. Both varieties oi 
the black rhinoceros are extremely fierce and dangerous, and rush headlong and 
unprovoked at any object which attracts their attention. They never attain 
much fat, and their flesh is tough, and not much esteemed by the Bechuanas. 
Their food consists almost entirely of the thorny branches of the wait-a-bil 
thorns. Their horns are much shorter than those of the other varieties, seldom 
exceeding eighteen inches in length. They are finely polished with constant 
rubbing against the trees. The skull is remarkably formed, its most striking 
feature being the tremendous thick ossification in which it ends above the nos- 
trils. It i^ on this mass that the horn is supported. The horns are not con 
nected with the skull, being attached merely by the skin, and they may thus be 
separated from the head by means of a sharp knife. They are hard and per 
fectly solid throughout, and are a fine material for various articles, such as drink- 
ing cups, mallets for rifles, handles for turner's tools, etc., etc. The horn is 
capable of a very high polish. The eyes of the rhinoceros are small and spark- 
ling, and do not readily observe the hunter, provided he keeps to leeward oi 
them. The skin is extremely thick, and only to be penetrated by bullets hard- 
ened with solder. During the day the rhinoceros will be found lying asleep or 
standing indolently in some retired part of the forest, or under the base of the 
(nountains, sheltered from the power of the sun by some friendly grove of um- 
brella-topped mimosas. In the evening they commence their nightly ramble, 
and wander over a great extent of country. They usually visit the fountains 
between the hours of nine and twelve o'clock at night, and it is on these occa- 
sions that they may be most successfully hunted, and with the least dj.nger. The 
black rhinoceros is subject to paroxysms of unprovoked fury, often plowing up 
the ground for several yards with its horns, and assaulting large bushes in the 
most violent manner. On these bushes they work for hours with their horns, at 
the same time snorting and blowing loudly, nor do they leave them in generaJ 
until they have broken them into pieces. The rhinoceros is supposed by many, 
and by myself among the rest, to be the animal alluded to by Job, chap, xxxix., 
verses 10 and il, where it is written, "Canst thou bind the unicorn with his 
hand in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust 
him because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him?" evi- 
dently alluding to an animal possessed of great strength and of untamable dis- 
position, for both of which the rhinoceros is remarkable. All the four varieties 
delight to roll and wallow in mud, with which their rugged hides are generally 
incrusted. — Adventures in South Africa^ I. pp. 215-16. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 253 

these two are based on mere differences in size, age, 
and direction of horns, all which vary much in each 
variety. The rhinoceros has a " guardian spirit" in 
the rhinoceros-bird, his -constant companion and de* 
voted friend. * Those of the black species are very 
wary, fierce, and difficult to take. Their flesh is tough 
also, whilst that of the white rhinoceros is fat, tender 
and, to the South African tribes, delicious. He is of 
a comparatively gentle spirit also, and more easily 
found and dispatched. 

But the most interesting of the wild animals of 
Africa is the elephant, which, as is well known, is in 
several respects different from the elephant of Asia. 
His ears are larger, and the formation of his tough, 

* These singular birds are thus described by Gumming : — -These rhinoceros- 
birds are constant attendants upon the hippopotamus and the four varieties of 
rhinoceros, their object being to feed upon the ticks and other parasitic insects 
that swarm upon these animals. They are of a grayish color and are nearly as 
large as a common thrush ; their voice is very similar to that of the mistletoe 
thrush. Many a time have these ever-watchful birds disappointed me in my 
stalk, and tempted me to invoke an anathema upon their devoted heads. They 
are the best friends the rhinoceros has, and rarely fail to awaken him even in 
his soundest nap. " Chukuroo" perfectly understands their warning, and, spring- 
ing to his feet, he generally first looks about him in every direction, after which 
he invariably makes off. I have often hunted a rhinoceros on horseback, which 
led me a chase of many miles, and required a number of shots before he fell, 
during which chase several of these birds remained by the rhinoceros to the last. 
They reminded me of mariners on the deck of some bark sailing on the 
ocean, for they perched along his back and sides ; and as each of my bullets told 
Ml the shoulder of the rhinoceros, they ascended about six feet into the air utter- 
ing their harsh cry of alarm, and then resumed their position. It sometimea 
happened tnat the lower branches of trees, under which the rhinoceros passed, 
swept them from their living deck, but they always recovered their former sta- 
tion ; they also adhere to the rhinoceros during the night. I have often shot 
these animals at midnight when drinking at the fountains, and the birds, imag- 
ining they were asleep, remained with them till morning, and on my approaching, 
before taking flight, they exerted themselves to their utmost to awaken Chu karoo 
Crom his deep sleep. — IHd.^ 292-3. 



254 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

elastic feet Is very different. His tusks also are 
larger and he reaches a greater size than the Asiatic 
elephant. He has been found in nearly all parts oi 
interior Africa which have been explored, and to this 
day may be seen from vessels sailing along the West 
Coast near the equator, as he comes down to the sea 
to bathe his ponderous body. These animals are 
found in troops, varying in number from a few to 
several hundred. At times different troops have been 
seen together, whose heavy tread, in escaping, would 
make the earth tremble. They are exceedingly deli- 
cate as to their food, of which, however, they require 
immense quantities. Docile by nature, they are 
wonderfully fearful of man, whom, with a favorable 
wind, they can scent at a great distance ; but in de- 
fence of their young or when attacked they fight 
with the greatest courage and effect. The elephant 
is unquestionably recognized by all animals of the 
forest as their undoubted master. They often retain 
life long after being mortally wounded, and when 
about to die, the agony of the dissolution of such an 
immense physical system forces tears from their eyes, 
but they expire without convulsions and in heroic 
silence. It might almost appear that their predomi- 
nating feeling is that of sorrow that the vast forests 
through which they have roamed for years — perhaps 
a century — shall know them no more. It is difficult 
to believe one can kill these sublime animals, for 
gain alone, unless he be, at bottom, a genuine scoun- 
drel. 

It is doubtless different, however, when the grati- 
fication of the sporting propensity is the impelling 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 255 

motive, It was this which carried the Scottish hun- 
ter, Roualeyn Gordon Cumming, into the interior of 
South Africa, only about two years after the arrival 
there of Dr. Livingstone, and where he remained, 
hunting elephants, lions, rhinoceroses, hippopotami 
camelopards, and other great game, for the period ol 
nearly five years. Mr. Cumming's "Adventures in 
South Africa " were published, if our memory does 
not err, in the year 1850. They were speedily re- 
published in America, and were at first received with 
no little incredulity, as, by the way, most accounts of 
adventures in Africa, from Mungo Park to Stanley, 
have been. Adventures there appear to be naturally 
incredible to the rest of the world. It is as it was 
with respect to the rebuilding of Chicago ; no one 
believed it until he saw It all, and after that he could 
believe that almost anything is within the power of 
man's spirit of enterprise once fully aroused.* The 

*We cannot all go to Africa, but the testimony of Dr. Livingstone,, who re- 
ceived visits from this hunter eveiy year during the five years of his warfare with 
wild animals, will be regarded as conclusive upon the general truthfulness of Mr, 
Cumming's reports. Dr. Livingstone says : 

As the guides of Mr. Cumming were furnished through my influence, and 
usually got some strict charges as to their behavior before parting, looking upon 
me in the light of a father, they always came to give me an account of their ser- 
vice, and told most of those hunting-advehtures which have since been given 
to the world, before we had the pleasure of hearing our friend relate them him- 
self by our own fireside. I had thus a tolerably good opportunity of testing 
their accuracy, and I have no hesitation in saying that, for those who love that 
sort of thing ^Tr Cumming's book conveys a truthful idea of South African 
kunting. Some things in it require explanation, but the numbers of animals 
said to have been met with and killed are by no means improbable, considering 
the amount of large game then in the country. Two other gentlemen hunting 
in the same region destroyed in one season no fewer than seventy-eight rhi 
noceroses alone. Sportsmen, however, would not now find an equal n-umber , 
for, as guns are introduced ;imong the tribes, all these fine animals melt awaf 



255 STANLEY'S STORY; OR, 

incredulity in regard to Mr. Cumming's wonderful 
success in securing great game in Africa has long 
since passed away, and his narrative is now regarded 
as altogether trustworthy. He remained in Africa, 
hunting, the greater part of five years. During this 
time he slew more than one hundred elephants, be- 
sides those, mortally wounded, which escaped. He 
was equally successful with the camelopard, rhi- 
noceros, hippopotamus, lion, buffalo, eland, and the 
great variety of antelope which live in South Africa 
in countless numbers. One of his first adventures 
with large animals was with a troop of camelopards. 
It is thus graphically described : 

*'We halted beside a glorious fountain, the name oi 
which was Massouey, but I at once christened it 'the 
Elephant's own Fountain.' This was a very remark- 
able spot on the southern border of endless elephant 
forests, at which I had at length arrived. The foun- 
tain was deep and strong, situated in a hollow at the 
eastern extremity of an extensive vley, and its mar- 
gin was surrounded by a level stratum of solid old 
red sandstone. Here and there lay a thick layer of 
soil upon the rock, and this was packed fiat with the 
fresh spoor of elephants. Around the water's edge 
the very rock was worn down by the gigantic feet 
which for ages had trodden there. We drew up the 
wagons on a hillock on the eastern side of the water. 
I had just cooked my breakfast, and commenced to 



like snow in spring. In the more remote districts, Adhere fire-arms have not ye? 
been introduced, with the single exception of the rhinoceros the game is to be 
found in numbers much greater tb*n Mr. Gumming ever saw. — Restate fus i» 
South Africa, 169-70. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 257 

feed, when I heard my men exclaim, ' Almagtig keek 
de ghroote clomp cameel ;' and raising my eyes from 
my sassayby stew, I beheld a truly beautiful and very 
unusual scene. From the margin of the fountain 
there extended an open level vley, without a tree or 
bush, that stretched away about a mile to the north- 
ward, where it was bounded by extensive groves oi 
wide-spreading mimosas. Up the middle of this vley 
stalked a troop of ten colossal giraffes, flanked by two 
large herds of blue wildebeests and zebras, with an 
advanced guard of pallahs. They were all coming to 
the fountain to drink, and would be within rifle-shot 
of the wagons before I could finish my breakfast. 1 
however, continued to swallow my food with the ut- 
most expedition, having directed my men to catch 
and saddle * Colesberg.' In a few minutes the giraffes 
were slowly advancing within two hundred yards, 
stretching their graceful necks, and gazing in wonder 
at the unwonted wagons. Grasping my rifle, I now 
mounted * Colesberg,* and rode slowly toward them. 
They continued gazing at the wagons until I was 
within one hundred yards of them, when, whisking 
their long tails over their rumps, they made off at an 
easy canter. As I pressed upon them they increased 
their pace; but 'Colesberg' had much the speed of 
them, and before we had proceeded half a mile I was 
riding by the shoulder of a dark-chestnut old bull, 
whose head towered high above the rest. Letting 
fly at the gallop, I wounded him behind the shoulder; 
soon after which I broke him from the herd, and 
presently going ahead of him, he came to a stand. 
1 then gave him a second bullet, somewhere near the 



258 Stanley's story; or, 

(irst. These two shots had taken effect and he was 
now in my power, but I would not lay him low so far 
from camp ; so, having waited until he had regained 
his breath, I drove him half way back toward the 
wagons. Here he became obstreperous; so loading 
one barrel, and pointing my rifle toward the clouds, I 
shot him in the throat, when, rearing high, he fell 
backward and expired. This was a magnificent spec- 
imen of the giraffe, measuring upward of eighteen 
feet in height. I stood for nearly half an hour en- 
grossed in the contemplation of his extreme beauty 
and gigantic proportions ; and, if there had been no 
elephants, I could have exclaimed, like Duke Alex- 
ander of Gordon when he killed the famous old stag 
with seventeen tine, * Now I can die happy/ But I 
longed for an encounter with the noble elephants, 
and I thought little more of the giraffe than if I had 
killed a gemsbok or an eland." 

And in another place he describes his second suc- 
cess with the camelopard : 

" We now bent our steps homeward. We had not 
ridden many miles when we observed a herd of fif- 
teen camelopards browsing quietly in an open glade 
of the forest. After a very severe chase, in the course 
of which they stretched out into a magnificent widely 
extended front, keeping their line with a regularity 
worthy of a troop of dragoons, I succeeded in sepa- 
rating a fine bull, upward of eighteen feet in height, 
trom the rest of the herd, and brought him to the 
ground within a short distance of the camp. The 
Bechuanas expressed themselves delighted at my suc- 
cess. They kindled a fire and slept beside the car- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. it^g 

cass, which they very soon reduced to bil-tongue and 
♦narrow-bones." 

Mr. Cumming's first successful encounter with ele- 
phants was one of the most exciting of all. It is thus 
related : 

" Having followed the spoor for a short distance, 
old Mutchuisho became extremely excited, and told 
me that we were close to the elephants. Two or 
three men quickly ascended the tallest trees that 
stood near us, but they could not see the elephants. 
Mutchuisho then extended men to the right and left, 
while we continued on the spoor. 

" In a few minutes one of those who had gone ofi 
to our left came running breathless to say that he 
had seen the mighty game. I halted for a minute, 
and instructed Issac, who carried the big Dutch rifle, 
to act independently of me, while Kleinboy was to 
assist me in the chase. I bared my arms to the shoul- 
der, and, having imbibed a draught of aqua pura from 
the calabash of one of the spoorers, I grasped my 
trusty two-grooved rifle, and told my guide to go 
ahead. We proceeded silently as might be for a few 
hundred yards, following the guide, when he suddenly 
pointed, exclaiming, ' Klow !' and before us stood a 
herd of mighty bull elephants, packed together be- 
neath a shady grove about a hundred and fifty yards 
in advance. I rode slowly toward them, and, as soon 
as they observed me, they made a loud rumbling 
noise, and, tossing their trunks, wheeled right about 
and made off in one direction, crashing through the 
forest and leaving a cloud of dust behind them. I 



26o Stanley's story; or, 

*■ 

was accompanied by a detachment of my dogs, who 
assisted me in the pursuit. 

" The distance I had come, and the difficulties I 
had undergone to behold these elephants, rose fresh 
before me. I determined that on this occasion at 
least I would do my duty, and, dashing my spurs into 
Sundays' ribs, I was very soon much too close in 
their rear for safety. The elephants now made an 
inclination to my left, whereby I obtained a good 
view of the ivory. The herd consisted of six bulls ; 
four of them were full-grown, first-rate elephants ; the 
other two were fine fellows, but had not yet arrived 
at perfect stature. Of the four old fellows, two had 
much finer tusks than the rest, and for a few seconds 
I was undecided which of these two I would follow ; 
when, suddenly, the one which I fancied had the 
stoutest tusks broke from his comrades, and I at once 
felt convinced that he was the patriarch of the herd, 
and followed him accordingly. Cantering alongside, 
I was about to fire, when he instantly turned, and, 
uttering a trumpet so strong and shrill that the earth 
seemed to vibrate beneath my feet, he charged furi- 
ously after me for several hundred yards in a direct 
line, not altering his course in the slightest degree for 
the trees of the forest, which he snapped and ovej 

threw like reeds in his headlonor career, 
f ... 

" When he pulled up in his charge, I likewise halted 

and as he slowly turned to retreat, I let fly at his 
shoulder, 'Sunday' capering and prancing, and giving 
me much trouble. On receiving the ball the elephant 
shrugged his shoulder, and made off at a free majes- 
tic walk. This shot brought several of the dogs to 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 261 

my assistance which had been following the other ele- 
phants, and on their coming up and barking another 
headlong charge was the result, accompanied by the 
never-failing trumpet as before. In his charge he 
passed close to me, when I saluted him with a second 
bullet in the shoulder, of which he did not take the 
slightest notice. I now determined not to fire again 
until I could make a steady shot ; but, although the 
elephant turned repeatedly, * Sunday' invariably dis- 
appointed me, capering so that it was impossible to 
fire. At length, exasperated, I became reckless of 
the danger, and, springing from the saddle, ap- 
proached the elephant under cover of a tree, and gave 
him a bullet in the side of the head, when, trumpeting 
so shrilly that the forest trembled, he charged among 
the dogs, from whom he seemed to fancy that the 
blow had come ; after which he took up a position in 
a grove of thorns, with his head toward me. I walked 
up very near, and, as he was in the act of charging 
(being in those days under wrong impressions as to 
the impracticability of bringing down an elephant 
with a shot in the forehead), stood coolly in his path 
until he was within fifteen paces of me, and let drive 
at the hollow of his forehead, in the vain expectation 
that by so doing I should end his career. The shot 
only served to increase his fury — an effect which, I 
had remarked, shots in the head invariably produced ; 
and, continuing his charge with incredible quickness 
and impetuosity, he all but terminated my elephant- 
hunting forever. A large party of the Bechuanas 
who had come up yelled out simultaneously, imagin- 
ing I was killed, for the elephant was at one moment 



2 62 Stanley's story; or, 

almost on the top of me ; I, however, escaped by my 
activity, and by dodging round the bushy trees. 

" The elephant held on through the forest at a 
sweeping pace ; but he was hardly out of sight when 
I was loaded and in the saddle, and soon once more 
alongside. He kept crashing along at a steady pace 
with blood streaming from his wounds. It was long 
before I again fired, for I was afraid to dismount, and 
* Sunday' was extremely troublesome. At length I 
fired sharp right and left from the saddle : he got 
both balls behind the shoulder, and made a long 
charge after me, rumbling and trumpeting as before. 
The whole body of the Bamangwato men had now 
come up, and were following a short distance behind 
me. Among these was Mollyeon, who volunteered 
to help ; and being a very swift and active fellow, he 
rendered me important service by holding my fidgety 
horse's head while I fired and loaded, I then fired 
six broadsides from the saddle, the elephant charging 
almost every time, and pursuing us back to the main 
body in our rear, who fled in all directions as he ap- 
proached. 

" The sun had now sunk behind the tops of the 
trees ; it would very soon be dark, and the elephant 
did not seem much distressed, notwithstanding all he 
had received. I recollected that my time was short, 
and therefore at once resolved to fire no more from 
the saddle, but to go close up to him and fire on foot 
Riding up to him, I dismounted and, approaching 
very near, I gave it him right and left in the side of 
the head, upon which he made a long and determined 
charge after me ; but I was now very reckless of his 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 263 

charges, for I saw that he could not overtake me, and 
in a twinkling I was loaded, and, again approaching, 
fired sharp right and left behind his shoulder. Again 
he charged with a terrific trumpet, which sent ' Sun- 
day' flying through the forest. This was his last 
charge. The wounds which he had received began 
to tell on his constitution, and he now stood at bay 
beside a thorny tree, with the dogs barking around 
him. These, refreshed by the evening breeze, and 
perceiving that it was nearly over with the elephant, 
had once more come to my assistance. Having 
loaded, I drew near and fired right and left at his 
forehead. On receiving these shots, instead of 
charging, he tossed his trunk up and down, and by 
various sounds and motions, most gratifying to the 
hungry natives, evinced that his demise was near 
Again I loaded and fired my last shot behind his 
shoulder : on receiving it, he turned round the bushy 
tree beside which he stood, and I ran round to give 
the other barrel, but the mighty old monarch of the 
forest needed no more ; before I could clear the 
bushy tree he fell heavily on his side, and his spirit 
had fled." 

Such is a specimen of the " sport" which the wilds 
of Africa offer to the ambitious hunter. That it is 
in some respects rather serious sport may be imag- 
ined from the description as well as from Mr. Cum- 
ming's statement of his losses during his four expedi- 
tions into the interior. These were forty-five horses 
and seventy head of cattle, the value being at least 
$3,000. *' I also," he says, " lost about seventy of my 
dogs," which would convey the Idea of a considera- 



264 Stanley's story; or, 

ble kennel, the dogs all told. But he usually had 
only about thirty at a time. Many were killed by 
lions, while elephants made way with a still larger 
number. 

The expeditions of Mr. Du Chaillu, an American 
naturalist, in Equatorial Africa, were more valuable 
to the cause of science than those of Mr. Gumming 
in South Africa, and scarcely less interesting as the 
explorations of a hunter. Like Gumming, he was a 
highly successful hunter, and he was also much more 
— a student of natural history imbued with a love of 
science and having a genius for it. As Mr. Gum- 
ming's starting point was the extreme of South 
Africa, under English domination, Mr. Du Ghaillu 
had his headquarters beneath the equator on the 
west coast, and under the immediate eyesight, so to 
speak, of the American Presbyterian Mission for the 
Gaboon country. Mr. Du Ghaillu afterwards estab- 
lished his home in the Gamma country, and building 
himself a little village of huts near the junction of the 
N'poulounay and Fernand Vas rivers, and not far 
from the coast, named it " Washington " From the 
Gaboon and then from this African " city of Wash- 
ington," this celebrated traveller made several ex- 
plorations of the interior, much of the time among 
idolatrous and cannibal tribes. Enduring many 
hardships, overcoming many almost insurmountable 
difficulties, he not only gave to the world an ex- 
tremely interesting account of hunting expeditions 
but a description of the singular people and wonder- 
ful country he was the first white man to visit which 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 265 

forms a valued acquisition to the stock of geograph 
ical and scientific knowledge * 

Whilst he was very successful in procuring speci- 
mens of most of the animals and birds in equatorial 
Africa to a distance of several hundred miles from 
the coast, he devoted special attention to hunting 
the ape, and was more successful in killing the spe- 
cies commonly known as the gorrilla than any one ' 
else of Christendom has ever been. The greater 
difficulty of hunting the animal considered, he was 
as successful with the gorrilla as Mr. Gumming had 
been with the elephant. 

The troglodytes gorilla, or great chimpanzee of the 
equatorial region of West Africa has long been the 
most dreaded, perhaps, of all the wild beasts of that 
continent. And it is probably true that in unmixed 
ferocity when assailed he does not have his equal. 
The nature of this fierce animal — much like man in 
some particulars of physical formation, totally dis- 
similar in all other respects — may be learned from 
an instance or two of Mr. Du Chaillu's hunting him. 
The account of his killing his " first gorilla" is as fol- 
lows : 

" We started early and pushed for the most dense 
and impenetrable part of the forest (this was in the 
country of the Fan negroes, cannibals, a little more 
than one degree north of the equator and something 
less than two hundred miles east of the mouth of the 
Gaboon river), in hopes to find the very home of the 

* It need not be stated to students of matters pertaining to Africa, that this 
gentleman's " Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa" (publisheJ by 
the Harpers in 1868) is one of our most interesting books of travel. 



266 Stanley's story; or, 

beast I so much wished to shoot. Hour after houf 
we travelled, and yet no signs of gorilla. Only the 
everlasting little chattering monkeys — and not many 
of these — and occasional birds. In fact, the forests of 
this part of Africa are not so full of life as in some 
other parts to the south. 

" Suddenly Miengai uttered a little cluck with his 
tongue, which is the native's way of showing that 
something is stirring, and that a sharp look-out is nec- 
essary. And presently I noticed, ahead of us seem- 
ingly, a noise as of some one breaking down branches 
or twigs of trees. This was the gorilla, I knew at 
once, by the eager and satisfied looks of the men 
They looked once more carefully at their guns, to 
see if by any chance the powder had fallen out of 
the pans; I also examined mine, to make sure that 
all v/ere right; and then we marched on cautiously. 
The singular noise of the breaking of tree-branches 
continued. We walked with the greatest care, mak- 
ing no noise at all. The countenances of the men 
showed that they thought themselves engaged in a 
very serious undertaking; but we pushed on, until 
finally we thought wc saw through the thick woods 
the moving of the branches and small trees which the 
great beast was tearing down, probably to get from 
them the berries and fruits he lives on. 

" Suddenly, as we were yet creeping along, in a si- 
lence which made a heavy breath seem loud and dis- 
tinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremen- 
dous barking roar of the gorilla. Then the under- 
brush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before 
us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 267 

through the jungle on his all fours ; but when he saw 
our party he erected himself and looked us boldly in 
the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and 
was a sight I think never to forget. Nearly six feet 
high (he proved two inches shorter), with immense 
body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with 
fiercely-glaring large deep gray eyes, and a hellish ex- 
pression of face, which seemed to me like some night- 
mare vision : thus stood before us this king of the 
African forests. 

" He was not afraid of us. He stood there, and 

beat his breast with his huge fists till it resounded 

like an immense bass-drum, which is their mode of 

offering defiance ; meantime giving vent to roar after 

' roar. 

" The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and 
awful noise heard in these African woods. It begins 
with a sharp bark, like an angry dog, then glides into 
a deep bass roll, which literally and closely resembles 
the roll of distant thunder along the sky, for which I 
have sometimes been tempted to take it where I did 
not see the animal. So deep is it that it seems to 
proceed less from the mouth and throat than from 
the deep chest and vast paunch. 

" His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood 
motionless on the defensive, and the crest of short 
hair which stands on his forehead began to twitch 
rapidly up and down, while his powerful fangs were 
shown as he again sent forth a thunderous roar. And 
now truly he reminded me of nothing but some hell- 
ish dream creature — a being of that hideous order, 

haK man half beast, which we find pictured by old 
21 



268 Stanley's story; or, 

artists in some representations of the infernal re- 
gions. He advanced a few steps — then stopped to 
utter that hideous roar again — advanced again, and 
finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards 
from us. And here, as he began another of his roars 
and beating his breast in rage, we fired, and killed 
him. 

" With a groan which had something terribly human 
in it, and yet was full of brutishness, it fell forward 
on its face. The body shook convulsively for a few 
minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way 
and then all was quiet — death had done its work, and 
I had leisure to examine the huge body. It proved 
to be five feet eight inches high, and the muscular 
development of the arms and breast showed what 
immense strength it had possessed. 

" My men, though rejoicing at our luck, immediately 
began to quarrel about the apportionment of the 
meat — for they really eat this creature. I saw that 
we should come to blows presently if I did not inter- 
fere, and therefore said I should give each man his 
share, which satisfied all. As we were too tired to 
return to our camp of last night, we determined to 
camp here on the spot, and accordingly soon had 
some shelters erected and dinner going on. Luckily, 
one of the fellows shot a deer just as we began to 
camp, and on its meat I feasted while my men ate 
gorilla." 

Another hunt resulted fatally to one of the natives. 
It is thus related : 

" The next day we went on a gorilla-hunt. All thr 
nlako was busy on the evening of my arrival with 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 269 

preparations ; and as meat was scarce, everybody had 
joyful anticipations of hunger satisfied and plenty in 
the camp. Little did we guess what frightful death 
was to befall one of our number before the next 
sunset 

" I gave powder to the whole party. Six were to 
go off in one direction for bush-deer, and whatever 
luck might send them, and six others, of whom I was 
one, were to hunt for gorilla. We set ofT toward a 
dark valley, where Gambo, Igoumba's son, said we 
should find our prey. The gorilla chooses the dark- 
est, gloomiest forests for its home, and is found on 
the edges of the clearings only when in search of 
plantains, or sugar-cane, or pine-apple. Often they 
choose for their peculiar haunt a piece of wood so 
dark that even at midday one can scarce see ten 
yards. This makes it the more necessary to wait till the 
monstrous beast approaches near before shooting, in 
order that the first shot may be fatal. It does not 
often let the hunter reload. 

" Our little party separated, as is the custom, to 
stalk the wood in various directions. Gambo and I 
kept together. One brave fellow went off alone in a 
direction where he thought he could find a gorilla 
The other three took another course. We had been 
about an hour separated when Gambo and I heard a 
gun fired but little way from us, and presently another. 
We were already on our way to the spot where we 
hoped to see a gorilla slain, when the forest began to 
resound with the most terrific roars. Gambo seized 
my arms in great agitation, and we hurried on, both 
filled with a dreadful and sickening fear. We had 



270 Stanley's story; or, 

not gone far when our worst fears were realized 
The poor brave fellow who had gone off alone was 
lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and 
I thought at first quite dead. His bowels were pro- 
truding through the lacerated abdomen. Beside him 
lay his gun. The stock was broken, and the barrel 
was bent and flattened. It bore plainly the marks of 
the gorilla's teeth. 

" We picked him up, and I dressed his wounds as 
well as I could with rags torn from my clothes. 
When I had given him a little brandy to drink he 
came to himself, and was able, but with great diffi- 
culty, to speak. He said that he had met the gor- 
illa suddenly and face to face, and that it had not at- 
tempted to escape. It was, he said, a huge male, and 
seemed very savage. It was in a very gloomy part 
of the wood, and the darkness, I suppose, made him 
miss. He said he took good aim, and fired when the 
beast was only about eight yards off. The ball 
merely wounded it In the side. It at once began 
beating its breasts, and with the greatest rage ad- 
vanced upon him. 

" To run away was Impossible. He would have 
been caught in the jungle before he had gone a dozen 
steps. He stood his ground, and as quickly as he 
could reloaded his gun. Just as he raised it to fire 
the gorilla dashed It out of his hands, the gun going 
off in the fall, and then in an instant, and with a terri- 
ble roar, the animal gave him a tremendous blow \nth 
its immense paw, frightfully lacerating the abdomen, 
and with this single blow laying bare part of the in- 
testines. As he sank, bleeding, to the ground, the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 27 1 

monster seized the gun, and the poor hunter thought 
he would have his brains dashed out with it. But 
the gorilla seemed to have looked upon this also as 
an enemy, and in his rage flattened the barrel be- 
tween his strong jaws. 

" When we came upon the ground the gorilla was 
gone. This is their mode when attacked — to strike 
one or two blows, and then leave the victims of their 
rage on the ground and go off into the woods." 

During his explorations in equatorial Africa, Du 
Chaillu discovered two new species of ape — Troglod- 
ytes calvus and T. Koola-Kamba — and also a number 
of other mamalians, birds, serpents, and reptiles, be- 
fore unknown to naturalists. 

Contrary to a somewhat prevalent belief, many dis- 
eases prevail among wild animals. " The free life ol 
nature" is subject to woes, and needs the physician's 
aid, after all. " I have seen," says Dr. Livingstone, 
" the gnu, kama or hartebeest, the tressebe, kukama, 
and the giraffe, so mangy as to be uneatable even by 
the natives. Great numbers also of zebras are found 
dead with masses of foam at the nostrils, exactly as 
occurs in the common ' horse-sickness.' I once found 
a buffalo blind from ophthalmia standing by the foun- 
tain Otse. The rhinoceros has often worms on the 
conjunction of his eyes. All the wild animals are 
subject to intestinal worms besides. The zebra, gi- 
raffe, eland and kukuma have been seen mere skele- 
tons from decay of their teeth as well as from disease. 
The carnivera, too, become diseased and mangy; 
lions become lean and perish miserably by reason of 
tf-«- decay of their teeth," Gumming also speaks of 



272 Stanley's story; or, 

seeing extensive plains thickly covered with the 
bones of wild animals which had died of disease. 

As a rule, however, the animals are healthy. Their 
variety and vast numbers are beyond calculation. In 
a single day. Gumming saw the fresh spoor of about 
twenty varieties of " large game*' and most of the an- 
imals themselves. These included elephant, black and 
white rhinoceros, hippopotamus, camelopard, buffalo, 
blue wildebeest, zebra, water-buck, sassayby, koodoo, 
pallah, springbok, serolomootlooque, wild boar, dui- 
ker, steinbok, lion, leopard. This is the habitat also 
of keilton, eland, oryx, roan antelope, sable antelope, 
hartebeest, klipspringer, grys steinbuck, and reitbuck. 
A little farther on he thus speaks of the game he saw 
while taking breakfast : 

We resumed our march at daybreak on the 28th 
and held on through boundless open plains. As we 
advanced, game became more and more abundant 
In about two hours we reached a fine fountain, be- 
side which was a small cover of trees and bushes, 
which afforded an abundant supply of fire-wood. 
Here we outspanned for breakfast : it was a fine cool 
morning, with a pleasant breeze. The country was 
thickly covered with immense herds of game, consist- 
ing oi zebra, wildebeest, blesbok, and springbok- 
There could not have been less than five or six thou- 
sand head of game in sight of me as I sat at break- 
fast. Presently the whole of this game began to take 
alarm. Herd joined herd, and took away up the 
wind; and in a few minutes other vast herds came 
pouring on up the wind, covering the whole breadth 
of the plain with a living mass of noble game." 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 273 

And again: 

"When the sun rose next morning- I took coffee, 
and then rode west with two after-riders, in the hope 
of getting some blesbok shooting. I found the 
boundless undulating plains thickly covered with 
game, thousands upon thousands checkering the 
landscape far as the eye could strain in every direc- 
tion. The blesboks, which I was most desirous to 
obtain, were extremely wary, and kept pouring on, 
on up the wind in long continued streams of thou- 
sands, so swift and shy that it was impossible to get 
within six hundred yards of them, or even by any 
stratagem to waylay them, so boundless was the 
ground, and so cunningly did they avoid crossing our 
track." 

It might thus appear that if there is a sportsman's 
paradise anywhere it is Africa. 

Perhaps It would not be too much to say that 
about all the birds known to ornithology, and many 
yet unknown in the books upon that science are to 
be found in Africa. The ostrich, the largest of birds, 
is found only in Africa. It sometimes attains the 
height of eight feet. It is swift of foot, its cry is 
much like the roar of the lion, and its appearance at 
a distance Is very stately; but It is extremely stupid 
Its feathers have long been highly valued in com 
merce. Another most remarkable bird, peculiar to 
Africa, Is the secretary. This Is a bird of prey, feed- 
ing solely on serpents, which It pursues on foot and 
destroys in great numbers. It has been described 
as "an eagle, mounted on the long, naked legs of a 
crane." Waterfowl of all kinds abound, and there 



274 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

are wild geese which have brilliant and variegated 
plumage. The most of the forests of South Africa 
are alive with countless numbers of an almost end- 
less variety of birds, but in the equatorial regions 
they are much less numerous, though there are many 
of those varieties which are characterized by bright, 
gorgeous plumage. 

" Snake stories" are proverbially tinged with the 
colors of the imagination ; but the serpents and rep- 
tiles of Africa are no jesting topic to the inhabitants. 
Many of the serpents are particularly venomous. 
Dr. Livingstone states that the picakholu is so copi- 
ously supplied with poison, that " when a number of 
dogs attack it, the first bitten dies almost instantane- 
ously, the second in about five minutes, the third in 
an hour or so, while the fourth may live several 
hours." The puff adder and several vipers are very 
dangerous. There is one which " utters a cry by night 
exactly like the bleating of a kid. It is supposed by 
the natives to lure travellers to itself by this bleating." 
Several varieties, when alarmed, emit a peculiar odor, 
by which their presence is made known. The deadly 
cobra exists in several colors or varieties. There are 
various species of tree-climbing serpents, which ap- 
pear to have the power of fascination. This belief of 
Dr. Livingstone in the fascinating power of some ser- 
pents is also entertained by Mr. Du Challlu, and 
avowed as correct by the eminent naturalist, Dr. 
Andrew Smith In his " Reptllia." The eminent hunter 
of the gorilla says the presence of serpents in Africa 
is a "great blessing to the, country. They destroy 
great numbers of rats and mice, and other of die 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 275 

smaller quadrupeds which injure the native provi- 
sions ; and it is but just to say they are peacefully in- 
clined, and never attack man unless trodden on. 
They are glad enough to get out of the way ; and the 
most feared snake I saw in Africa (the Echidna nasi- 
comis) was one which is very slow in its movements, 
from which cause it happens that it oftener bites peo- 
ple than others, being unable to get out of the way 
quickly. Though serpents abound in all parts of the 
country, I have travelled a month at a time without 
seeing one." The natives, though bare legged, are 
rarely bitten. There are several species of boa, which 
attain great size and weight. The variety known as 
the natal rock python, which is often seen in interior 
south Africa, though entirely without venom, like 
other boas, is very destructive of birds and animals. 
" They are perfectly harmless," says Dr. Livingstone, 
"and live on small animals, chiefly the rodentia ; oc- 
casionally the steinbuck and pallah fall victims, and 
are sucked into its comparatively small mouth in boa- 
constrictor fashion. The flesh is much relished by 
Bakalahari and Bushmen. They carry away each his 
portion, like logs of wood, over their shoulders." 
Gumming killed one of these boas measuring four- 
teen feet in length. They have been known to meas- 
ure nearly thirty feet in length, and to capture and 
swallow half-grown cattle. The Caffre of South 
Africa is very skilful in slaying the python with his 
spear. He is thus often pinned to the earth by a 
single throw and dispatched at leisure; then cut up 
into snake-logs and carried off for food. 

Among the innumerable insects of Africa — the fa- 



276 Stanley's story; or, 

tal tsetse fly and the devastating locust have already 
been mentioned — the most interesting, perhaps, is the 
ant. It exists in great variety and prodigious num- 
bers. There are countless ant-hills in different parts 
of Africa, which are larger than a majority of the in- 
dividual homes of the natives of the southern and 
central portions of the continent. Human works, to 
be of the same relative size as these homes of insects 
would tower five or six times above the pyramids of 
Egypt, and would require a base correspondingly 
large. Among themselves in Africa some of the spe- 
cies are warriors and cannibals ; they fight their ene- 
mies and eat the vanquished. Other species are ex- 
ceedingly destructive of the timbers of houses, eating 
out the insldes and leaving useless shells. Others 
consume vast quantities of decaying animal matter, 
and still others the decaying vegetation, including 
great trees, of the tropics. Many are exceedingly 
fierce in nature. Among these is the bashikouay ant 
of equatorial Africa. It is, perhaps, relatively the 
most voracious of all living things, and the most de- 
structive. Unlike other large-sized ants it does not 
build houses, but excavates holes In the earth for 
place of retreat during storms. Its nature and habits 
are fully described by Du Chaillu : 

" This ant Is very abundant In the whole region I 
have travelled over in Africa. It Is the dread of al! 
living animals from the leopard to the smallest in 
sect. It Is their habit to march through the forests 
in a long regular line — a line about two Inches broad 
and often several miles in length. All along this line 
are larger ants, who act as officers, stand outside the 




INSECT LIFE IN AFRICA. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 277. 

ranks, and keep this singular army in order. If they 
come to a place where there are no trees to sheltei 
them from the sun, whose heat they can not bear, 
they immediately build underground tunnels, through 
which the whole army passes in columns to the for 
est beyond. These tunnels are four or five feet un- 
derground, and are used only in the heat of the day 
or during a storm. 

" When they get hungry the long file spreads itself 
through the forest in a front line, and attacks and 
devours all it comes to with a fury which is quite 
irresistible. The elephant and gorilla fiy before this 
attack. The black men run for their lives. Every 
animal that lives in their line of march is chased 
They seem to understand and act upon the tactics of 
Napoleon, and concentrate, with great speed, their 
heaviest forces upon the point of attack. In an in- 
credibly short space of time the mouse, or dog, or 
leopard, or deer is overwhelmed, killed, eaten, and 
the bare skeleton only remains. 

" They seem to travel night and day. Many a time 
have I been awakened out of a sleep, and obliged to 
rush from the hut and into the water to save my life, 
and after all suffered intolerable agony from the bites 
of the advance-guard, who had got into my clothes. 
When they enter a house they clear it of all living 
things. Roaches are devoured in an instant. Rats 
and mice spring round the room in vain. An over- 
whelming force of ants kills a strong rat in less than 
a minute, in spite of the most frantic struggles, and 
in less than another minute its bones are stripped 
Every living thing in the house is devoured They 



2/8 Stanley's STORY ; or, 

will not touch vegetable matter. Thus they are in 
reality very useful (as well as dangerous) to the ne- 
groes, who have their huts cleaned of all the abound- 
ing vermin, such as immense roaches and centipedes 
at least several times a year. 

" When on their march the insect world flies before 
them, and I have often had the approach of a bashi- 
kouay army heralded to me by this means. Wher- 
ever they go they make a clean sweep, even ascending 
to the tops of the highest trees in pursuit of their 
prey. Their manner of attack is an impetuous leap. 
Instantly the strong pincers are fastened, and they 
only let go when the piece gives aw^ay. At such times 
this little animal seems animated by a kind of furj) 
which causes it to disregard entirely its own safety 
and to seek only the conquest of its prey. The bite 
is very painful. 

" The negroes relate that criminals were in for- 
mer times exposed in the path of the bashikouay 
ants, as the most cruel manner of putting to death. 

" Two very remarkable practices of theirs remain to 
be related. When, on their line of march, they must 
cross a stream, they throw themselves across and form 
a tunnel — a living tunnel — connecting two trees or 
high bushes on opposite sides of the little stream. 
This is done with great speed, and is effected by a 
great number of ants, each of which clings with its fore 
claws to its next neighbor's body or hind claws. Thus 
they form a high, safe tubular bridge, through which 
the whole vast regiment marches in regular order. 
If disturbed, or if the arch is broken by the violence 



THROUGH THE WiLDS OE At"RiCA. 5 79 

of some animal, they instantly attack the offender 
with the greatest animosity. 

" The bashikouay have the sense of smell finely de- 
veloped, as indeed have all the ants I know of, and 
they are guided very much by it. They are larger 
than any ant we have in America, being at least half 
an inch long, and are armed with very powerful fore 
legs and sharp jaws, with which they bite. They are 
red or dark-brown in color. Their numbers are so 
great that one does not like to enter into calcula- 
tions ; but I have seen one continual line passing at 
good speed a particular place for twelve hours. The 
reader may imagine for himself how many millions 
on millions there may have been contained here." 

And yet the ants of Africa are the chief agents 
employed in forming a fertile soil. " But for their 
labors," remarks Dr. Livingstone, " the tropical for- 
ests, bad as they now are with fallen trees, would be 
a thousand times worse. They would be Impassible 
on account of the heaps of dead vegetation lying on 
the surface, and emitting worse effluvia than the com- 
paratively small unburied collections do now. When 
one looks at the wonderful adaptations throughout 
creation, and the varied operations carried on with 
such wisdom and skill, the Idea of second causes looks 
clumsy. We are viewing the direct handiwork of 
Him who is the one and only Power in the universe; 
wonderful in counsel ; in whom we all live, and move 
and have our being." 

There are vast numbers of annoying insects in all 
portions of the continent, which In this respect, per- 
haps, is neither better nor worse than other parts of 
22 



28o 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



the world, where little annoyances make up the great 
sum of human misery. It is only one of many proofs 
that Africa is the region of contrasts, that the great- 
est animals flee from a little insect, the life of scores 
of whom might be stamped out by a single footstep, 
yet the aggregate labors of which preserve the conti 
aent from desolation and decay. 







CHAPTER XV. 

LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY AND DEATH. 

Dr. Livingstone anxiously awaits the Recruits and Supplies sent by Mr. Stanley — 
On their Arrival sets out Southwestward on his Last Journey — Reaches 
Kisera, where Chronic Dysentery seizes him — He refuses to yield; but 
pushes on, till Increasing Debility compels him to stop and retrace his 
steps — He sinks rapidly, and on May 4th Breathes his Last — His attendants 
take Necessary Precautions to Insure the Return of the Corpse to England — 
Letter from Mr. Holmwood, Attache of the British Consulate at Zanzibar. 

It will be recollected that Stanley bade Dr. Living- 
stone farewell on the 14th of March, 1872, at Kwihara, 
and that, on his arrival at Zanzibar, he sent back to 
Dr. Livingstone the men and means he had expressed 
a wish for. 

From some unexplained cause, this party of recruits, 

with their stores, was exceedingly slow in reaching 

Dr. Livingstone. According to the account given 

Mr. Stanley by Dr. Livingstone's body-servant, Jacob 

Wainwright, after the funeral, in London, " The Doctor 

expressed great joy, when he at last saw the caravan 

of freemen for which he had been anxiously waiting, 

before the resumption of his explorations." After 

allowing them a few days' rest at Unyanyembe, Dr. 

Livingstone and his party started on his last exploring 

journey. They traveled southwest by way of Kasa 

gera and Kigandu to Kisera, a district ruled by King 

Simba. Here the Doctor had a relapse of his old 

malady, the Chronic Dysentery, which so weakened 

281 



2b 2 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

him that he was compelled to take to riding a donkey. 
He did not yet regard the attack as dangerous, and 
accordingly pursued his march, still southwestward, to 
Mpathwa, and thence into the valley of the Rungwa, 
where he found many boiling springs ; thence he 
pressed on through Ufipa and Uemba (or Uremba), 
to Margunga. In the marshes of Uemba (or Uremba) 
one of their two donkeys died. Traveling along the 
Moungo, they reached the district called Kawendi, 
w^here a lion killed the remaining donkey. Thence- 
forward, the Doctor, getting daily weaker, had to be 
borne in a kitanda (a native bed resembling a ham- 
mock) ; he still refused to yield, but urged his party 
on till they came to the head-waters which empty 
themselves into Lake Bangweolo. Here they made 
use of Stanley's boat, which they had carried a dis- 
tance of eleven hundred miles. They crossed the 
Chambezi, and attempted to push their way along the 
southern shore to Lake Bangu, and toward the Foun- 
tains of Herodotus, reported to be at Katanga (Ka- 
tanda?), where he hoped to pause* and recruit his 
health. Perceiving, however, how rapidly he was 
growing weaker, he determined to hasten back to 
Unyanyembe, and accordingly at last turned his face 
northward ; but on arriving at Kitumbo, he seemed 
suddenly to realize that his last hour was drawing 
near, and he tried to stop there, but the chief refused 
to permit it, and he was forced to proceed farther 
north toward Kibende. On their arrival at a small 
village in the district of Mullala, his tent was pitched, 
and he was placed therein. But, fearing the heat of 
the sun. he directed that a hut should be built for him 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 283 

"to die in/' This was done, and he was carefully re* 
moved to it. His last entry in his diary is dated April 
27th, 1873, thirteen months and thirteen days after his 
parting from Mr. Stanley, and in that entry he records 
his extreme illness and his inability to proceed farther. 
After this, he seems to have resolutely prepared for 
the great journey of death. 

The boy Majwara states that, during the intervals 
between the paroxysms of extreme pain, the doctor 
prayed constantly for his family, and frequently uttered 
the word " home !" After his being placed in his hut, 
Dr. Livingstone would permit no one to stay with him 
except Majwara, and occasionally Susi, though the 
rest each morning called and greeted him with the 
customary words " Yambo, bana !** (** Good-morning, 
master !") 

Majwara, on the last morning, made some tea for the 
Doctor and administered stimulants, which appeared 
to have no effect. At about midnight of May ist. Dr. 
Livingstone quietly breathed his last. 

The next morning, the faithful attendants held a 
consultation as to what was to be done with the re- 
mains. Their movements had to be kept very secret, 
because, if the fact of the death were discovered by 
the natives, there was reason to fear that their super- 
stitions would lead them to prevent the removal of 
the corpse. 

Fargalla, one of the men sent by Mr. Stanley, then 
disemboweled the body, and, after leaving the village 
a safe distance, they hung it in the sun for five days, 
to dry it thoroughly, after which they packed it care- 
fully in bark. 



284 Stanley's story; or, 

These steps were taken with the view the better to 
carry out their determination of sending the body 
home to England. After the heart and intestines had 
been carefully removed a solemn funeral service was 
held, and they were committed to the earth, Jacob 
Walnwright officiating as leader in the religious cere- 
monies. 

They then set out on their long journey to Unyan 
yembe, a journey which consumed six weary months, 
owing to repeated attempts of natives to b^r their 
march, which necessitated much loss of time in pur- 
suing circuitous routes. 

Meanwhile, the fourth Search and Relief Expedition 
arrived at Zanzibar in February, 1873. This expedi- 
tion was under the leadership of Lieutenants Murphy 
and Cameron and Dr. Dillon, and had been sent out 
by the Royal Geographical Society. Sir Bartle Frere 
was then at Zanzibar endeavoring to forward the 
efforts of the Government to suppress the slave trade, 
in response to the earnest representations of Dr. Liv- 
ingstone. He rendered the expedition such aid as he 
could, and it proceeded to Unyanyembe, where it ar- 
rived in August. In October, a messenger brought 
in the sad news of Dr. Livingstone's death. Dr. EHl- 
Ion, who was sick, with Lieut. Murphy, soon after 
started to return from their expedition, but at Kase- 
gera Dr. Dillon, under a temporary attack of insanity, 
committed suicide. 

Leaving to the ensuing chapter the notes of the 
homeward voyage of the party who bore Dr. Living- 
stone's remains to England, we cannot better close 
this chapter than by copying an interesting letter from 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 285 

Mr. Holmwood, the British Vice-Consul at Zanzibar, 
to Sir Bartle Frere, then the President of the Royal 
Geographical Society. We have already given the 
substance of the information, as detailed by Jacob 
Wainwright, but the letter is interesting enough to 
justify its insertion, notwithstanding the repetitions 
and occasional apparent discrepancies. 

"Zanzibar, March 12, 1874. 

" My Dear Sir Bartle — No doubt you will heai 
from several interested in Dr. Livingstone ; but, as 1 
do not feel sure that any one has thoroughly examined 
the men who came down with his remains, I briefly 
summarize what I have been able to glean from a 
careful cross-examination of Majwara, who was always 
at his side during his last days, and Susi, as well as 
the Nassick boys, have generally confirmed what he 
says. I inclose a small sketch-map, merely giving my 
idea of the locality, and have added a dotted line to 
show his route during this last journey of his life. 

'• The party sent by Stanley left Unyanyembe with 
the Doctor about the end of August, 1872, and marched 
straight to the south of Lake Tanganyika, through 
Ufipa, crossing the Rungwa River, where they met 
with natural springs of boiling water, bubbling up 
high above the ground. On reaching the Chambezi 
or Kambezi River, they crossed it about a week's 
journey from Lake Bemba, also crossing a large 
feeder ; but by Susi's advice Livingstone again turned 
northward, and recrossed the Kambezi, or Luapula, 
as he then called it, just before it entered the lake. 

" He could not, however, keep close to the north 



286 Stanley's story; or, 

shore of Lake Bemba, owing to the numerous creeks 
and streams, which were hidden In forests of high 
grass and rushes. After making a detour, he again 
struck the lake, at a village where he got canoes 
across to an Island In the centre, called Matipa. Here 
the shores on either hand were not visible, and the 
Doctor was put to great straits by the natives declining 
to let him use their canoes to cross to the opposite 
shore. He therefore seized seven canoes by force, 
and when the natives made a show of resistance he 
fired his pistol over their heads, after which they 
ceased to obstruct him. Grossing the lake diagonally, 
he arrived in a long valley ; and the rains having now 
set in fully, the caravan had to wade rather than walk, 
constantly crossing blind streams, and, in fact, owing 
to the high rushes and grass, hardly being able to dis- 
tinguish at times the land, or rather what was gener- 
ally dry land, from the lake. 

" Dr. Livingstone had been weak and ailing since 
leaving Unyanyembe ; and when passing through the 
country of Ukabende, at the southwest of the lake, 
he told Majwara (the boy given him by Stanley, who 
is now in my service) that he felt unable to go on 
with his work, but should try and cross the hills to 
Katanga (Katanda?) and there rest, endeavoring to 
buy ivory, which In all this country is very cheap 
(three yards of merikani buying a slave or a tusk), 
and returning to Ujiji through Manuema to recruit 
and reorganize. 

"But as he approached the northern part of Bisa 
(a very large country), arriving in the province of 
Ulala, he first had to take to riding a donkey, and then 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 287 

suffer himself to be carried on a kitanda (native bed 
stead), which at first went much against the grain. 
During this time he never allowed the boy Majwara 
to leave him, and he then told that faithful and honest 
fellow that he should never cross the high hills to Ka- 
tanda. He called for Susi, and asked how far it was 
to the Luapula, and on his answering * three days' 
remarked * he should never see his river again/ 

" On arriving at Ilala, the capital of the district, 
where Kitambo the Sultan lived, the party were re- 
fused permission to stay, and they carried Livingstone 
three hours' march back toward Kabende. Here they 
erected for him a rude hut and fence, and he would 
not allow any to approach him for the remaining days 
of his life except Majwara and Susi, except that every 
morning they were all desired to come to the door 
and say * Good-morning !' 

" During these few days he was in great pain, and 
could keep nothing, even for a moment, on his stomach. 
He lost his sight so far as hardly to be able to dis- 
tinguish when a light was kindled, and gradually sank 
during the night of the 4th of May, 1873. Only Maj- 
wara was present when he died, and he is unable to 
say when he ceased to breathe. Susi, hearing that he 
was dead, told Jacob Wainwright to make a note in 
the Doctor's diary of the things found by him. Wain- 
wright was not quite certain as to the day of the 
month; and as Susi told him the Doctor had last written 
the day before, and he found this entry to be dated 
27th April, he wrote 28th April ; but, on comparing 
his own diary on arrival at Unyanyembe, he found it 
to be the 4th of May ; and this is confirmed by Maj- 



288 ^ Stanley's story ; or, 

wara, who says Livingstone was unable to write fot 
the last four or five days of his life. I fancy the spot 
where Livingstone died is about 11.25 degrees south 
and 27 degrees east; but, of course, the whole of this 
is subject to correction, and, although I have spent 
many hours in finding it all out, the Doctor's diary may 
show it to be very imperfect. 

" I fear you will find this a very unconnected narra- 
tion, but my apology must be that the Consul-General 
is not well, and the other assistant absent on duty, 
and there is much work for me to do. Mr. Arthur 
Laing has been entrusted with the charge of the re- 
mains and diaries, which latter he has been instructed 
to hand to Lord Derby. 

"Trusting that you are in the enjoyment of good 
health, and with great respect, believe me, dear Sir 
Bartle, your most obedient servant, 

"Frederick Holmwood. 

'*To the Right Hon. Sir Bartle Frere, K. C. B., G. 
C. S. L, etc., President of the Royal Geographical 
Society." 




CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CORPSE BORNE TO ENGLAND AND LAID IN WEST- 
MINSTER ABBEY. 

The Body of Dr. Livingstone Borne to Unyanyembe by his Attendants, and 
thence to Zanzibar — The British Consul-General sends it, with the Doctor's 
Papers, Books, etc., to England — Arrival at Southampton, and at London — 
The People Vie in Tributes of Respect — The Funeral — The Grave in West- 
minster Abbey. 

From the point where Dr. Livingstone died to Un- 
yanyembe was a distance of upward of one thousand 
miles ; this the Doctor's faithful attendants traversed 
with his remains, frequently having to diverge ma- 
terially from the road to circumvent hostile demon- 
strations of parties of natives. Six toilsome months 
were consumed in the journey, and the month of 
November had opened ere they reached Unyanyembe. 
Thence, after a pause, they bore their precious burden 
to Zanzibar, where they arrived in February, 1874, 
and delivered the corpse and the Doctor's personal 
effects (including his Diary, papers, etc.) into the cus- 
tody of the British Consul-General, who immediately 
shipped them, in care of Mr. Arthur Laing, for Eng- 
land. Among those who accompanied the body was 
Jacob Wainwright, Dr. Livingstone's body-servant 
At Aden, the steamer Malwa, which had been sent 
out by the British Government, met them, and the 
party were transferred to her. 

23 289 



290 Stanley's story ; or, 

On the 15th of April, the Malwa arrived at South- 
ampton, and at eleven o'clock landed the party, with 
the corpse, at the Royal Pier, in the presence of a vast 
concourse of people, estimated at upward of fifty 
thousand, business having been suspended, and all 
classes of the people having come to testify their re- 
spect for the illustrious dead. The Mayor formally 
received the remains, and they were borne to the 
railway station, accompanied by the assembled thou- 
sands, while minute guns were fired and the bells 
tolled. The scene was very impressive. The remains 
were thence carried to London by rail, and, arriving 
there at three o'clock, p. m., were taken in charge by 
the Royal Geographical Society, who had the coffin 
transferred to a hearse, and taken to their rooms, fol- 
lowed by a numerous line of carriages and a large 
number of persons afoot. Here the corpse was viewed 
by Sir William Ferguson in the presence of Drs. Kirk 
and Loudon, Rev. Dr. Moffat and others, the object 
being to identify the remains and to remove all possi- 
bility of cavil as to their being those of Dr. Living- 
stone. The result can best be told in Sir William 
Ferguson's own words, and hence we insert his letter 
to The London Lancet: 

" Within the last few months, many have hesitated 
to believe that Livingstone was dead. Above all, it 
seemed beyond ordinary probability that his remains 
would have been brought from Central Africa to the 
heart of London. That a body was on its way from 
this all but mythical region could hardly be doubted 
after the examination at Zanzibar of the remains, but 
many were skeptical as to this dead frame being that 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. ^9 1 

of Livingstone. Happily it was borne in mind by 
many old friends that he had one condition of body 
which would mark the identification of his remains, 
even if years and years had elapsed. If it should be 
proved on anatomical examination that the remains of 
an old ununited fracture in his left humerus (arm bone) 
could be recognized, all doubt on the subject would be 
settled at once and for ever. It has fallen to my lot 
to have the honor of being selected to make the cru- 
cial examination to this end, and I have accordingly 
performed that duty. From what I have seen I am 
much impressed with the ingenious manner in which 
those who have contrived to secure that the body 
should be carried through the long distance from 
where Livingstone died, until it could reach a place 
where transit was comparatively easy, accomplished 
their task. The lower limbs were so severed from 
the trunk that the length of the bulk of package was 
reduced to a little over four feet. The soft tissues 
seem to have been removed to a great extent from 
the bones, and these latter were so disposed that, by 
doubling and otherwise, the shortening was accom- 
plished. The abdominal viscera were absent, and so 
were those of the chest, including, of course, heart 
and lungs. There had been made a large opening in 
front of the abdomen, and through that the native ope- 
rators had ingeniously contrived to remove the con- 
tents of the chest as well as of the abdomen. The skin 
over the chest, sternum and ribs had been untouched 
Before these points were clearly ascertained some 
coarse tapes had to be loosened, which set free some 
rough linen material — a striped colored bit of cotton 



29^ STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

cloth, such as might have been an attractive material 
for the natives among whom Livingstone traveled — a 
coarse cotton shirt, which doubtless belonged to the 
traveler's scanty wardrobe, and in particular a large 
portion of the bark of a tree, which had formed the 
principal part of the package — the case thereof no 
doubt. The skin of the trunk, from the pelvis to the 
crown of the head, had been untouched. Everywhere 
was that shriveling which might have been expected 
after salting, baking in the sun, and eleven months of 
time. The features of the face could not be recog- 
nized. The hair on the scalp was plentiful, and much 
longer than he wore it when last in England. A 
moustache could not be recognized, but whiskers were 
in abundance. The forehead was in shape such as 
we are familiar with from memory, and from the pic- 
tures and busts now extant. The circumference of 
the cranium, from the occiput to the brow, was 23 J 
inches, which was recognized by some present to be 
in accordance with the measurement when al've. 
In particular, the arms attracted attention. They lay 
as if placed in ordinary fashion, each down by the 
side. The skin and tissues under were on each side 
shrunk almost to skeleton bulk, and at a glance to 
practiced eyes — there were five, I may say six, profes- 
sional men present — the state of the left arm was 
such as to convince every one present who had ex- 
amined it during life, that the limb was Livingstone's. 
Exactly in the region of the attachment of the deltoid 
to the humerus, there were the indications of an 
oblique fracture. On moving the arm, there were the 
indications of the ununited fracture. A closer inves 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 29^ 

tigation and dissection displayed the false joint which 
had long ago been so well recognized by those who 
had examined the arm in former days. The Rev. Dr. 
Moffat, and in particular Dr. Kirk, late of Zanzibar, 
and Dr. Loudon, of Hamilton, in Scotland, at once 
recognized the condition. Having myself been con- 
sulted regarding the state of the limb when Living 
stone was last in London, I was convinced that the 
remains of the great traveler lay before us. Thou- 
sands of heads with a like large circumference might 
have been under similar scrutiny ; the skeletons of 
hundreds of thousands might have been so ; the 
humerus in each might have been perfect ; if one or 
both had been broken during life it would have united 
again in such a manner that a tyro could easily have 
detected the peculiarity. The condition of ununited 
fracture in this locality is exceedingly rare. I say this 
from my personal professional experience, and that 
such a specimen should have turned up in London 
from the centre of Africa, excepting in the body of 
Dr. Livingstone, where it was known by competent 
authorities to have existed, is beyond human credi- 
bility. It must not be supposed by those who are not 
professionally acquainted with this kind of lesion — 
which often causes so much interest to the practical 
surgeon — that a fracture and new joint of the kind 
now referred to could have been of recent date or 
made for a purpose. There were in reality all the 
indications which the experienced pathologist recog- 
nizes as infallible, such as the attenuated condition of 
the two great fragments (common under such circum- 
stances), and the semblance of a new joint, but ac- 



294 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

tually there was a small fragment detached from the 
others which bore out Livingstone's own view that the 
bones had been * crushed into splinters/ Having had 
ample opportunity of examining the arm during life, 
and conversing with Livingstone on the subject, and 
being one of those who entertained hopes that the 
last reports of Livingstone's death might, like others, 
prove false, I approached the examination with an 
anxious feeling regarding this great and most peculiar 
crucial test. The first glance at the left arm set my 
mind at rest, and that, with the further examination, 
made me as positive as to the identity of these re- 
mains as that there has been among us in modern 
times one of the greatest men of the human race — 
David Livingstone." 

On Saturday, the i8th of April, all that was mortal 
of the great missionary-explorer was consigned to its 
last resting-place in Westminster Abbey. The funeral 
procession started at about ten o'clock from the Rooms 
of the Royal Geographical Society, and was partici- 
pated in by an immense number of people of all 
ranks in life. The cortege included the hearse and 
twelve mourning coaches, and the private carriages 
of the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the German Am- 
bassador, Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Lady Franklin 
and many others. The pall-bearers were Mr. Stanley^ 
Jacob Wainwright, Sir Thomas Steele, W. C. Oswell, 
W. F. Webb, Dr. Kirk, Rev. H. Waller, Mr. Young, 
Rev. F. Steele and Kalulu (the African boy brought 
home by Stanley). Among the mourners, we may 
note the Duke of Sutherland, Lord Houghton (the 
poet), the Duke of Manchester, the Bishops of Lincoln 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 295 

and Sierra Leone, the Lord Mayor and Corporation 
of London, Lord Shaftesbury (the philanthropist). Col- 
onel Grant (the explorer), Mr. Moran (the American 
Secretary of Legation), Sir Bartle Frere, Sir H. Raw- 
linson. Sir Rutherford Alcock, Rev. Dr. Moffat, Dr. 
Lyon Playfair, Lord Lawrence, Sir F. Buxton, Hon. 
Arthur Kinnaird, Admiral Sir William Hall, Sherard 
Osborn, Codrington and Ommaney, of the British 
Navy, besides deputations from the various learned 
societies, and from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hamilton, 
together with other men of eminence too numerous to 
recapitulate. The procession did not enter the Abbey 
till past one o'clock, and long before that hour every 
available space in the vicinity of the grave was occu- 
pied, and there were persons even in the clerestory. 

" Five minutes past one. Dean Stanley, in his full 
robes, with a purple cap on his head, and the red rib- 
bon of the Order of the Bath, of which he is chaplain 
round his neck, is standing at the door of the west 
nave, attended by the Sub- Dean and Canons, waiting 
for the body. Now we see the procession slowly 
filing through the cloisters. 

" First come the silver mace-bearers, then the choi 
isters, then the coffin, of brightly polished oak, iu 
which the metal shells have been enclosed. On the 
brass plate is the inscription, 

DAVID LIVINGSTONE, 

Bom at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 

19th March, 1813. 

Died at Mullala, Central Africa, 

4th May, 1873. 

and the lid is covered with wreaths of white camellias 
and branches of palm." 



296 Stanley's story; or, 

The solemn and impressive service of the Englislj 
Church was effectively conducted by Dean Stanley, 
assisted by the Sub-Dean and Canons ; it was choral 
throughout The entire effect was grand in its solemn 
intensity. 

The grave is in the centre of the west part of the 
nave, in close proximity to those of Telford and Ste- 
phenson, the engineers. Sir James Outram and Gen- 
eral Wade, the soldiers, and other men of eminence 
in various lines of service. It is in a spot cheered 
with sunshine, and during the funeral service it was 
illumined with a ray of sunlight which, passing through 
the superb stained-glass memorial window erected to 
the memory of Brunei, the engineer of the Thames 
Tunnel and the Saltash Viaduct, had a fine effect. 
The grave is shallow, owing to the fact that the soil is 
too sandy to admit of digging deep. 

The words " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes " having 
been pronounced and the service closed, the people 
dispersed slowly and with a solemnity that seemed to 
betoken a sense of personal loss. 

One fact was evident throughout all the doings of 
the three days, from the time of the landing at South- 
ampton, to the close of the ceremonies in Westminster 
Abbey — and that was that the deceased explorer-mis- 
sionary had won the respect, the esteem, nay, the lov-e, 
of all classes, from the Royal household to the humblest 
of the people. 

Nor are these sentiments confined to the people of 
the British Empire ; all nations and peoples of the 
Christian world share in them. And In no part of 
the world are these feelings warmer and stronger 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 297 

than in the United States. As a partial evidence 
of this, we may allude to the immense meeting in 
New York on the 23d of April. The spacious Acad- 
emy of Music proved far too small to admit the thou- 
sands who sought entrance. The warmly eulogistic 
addresses of Chief Justice Daly, Rev. Dr. Adams, 
Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. I. I. Hayes (the Arctic ex- 
plorer), the Rev. Dr. Schenck and others, met with 
the hearty endorsement of those who were fortunate 
enough to gain admittance. And outside of New 
York and among those who could not attend the 
meeting, the feeling is no less sincere. This universal 
sentiment is attributable not so much to Dr. Living- 
stone's eminent services as an explorer, great as are 
their certain results, as to his unwearied philanthropy 
and his Christian spirit of self-consecration to the 
great work of rescuing the degraded people of Cen- 
tral Africa and of putting an end to the fearful slave 
trade. His heart lies buried in the land to whose in- 
terests he devoted his best years, and his body in an 
honored grave in Westminster Abbey amid England's 
most distinguished sons — his soul has found its home 
among the "blessed of the Father," with the Lord 
whom he loved and served, but he yet lives, a cher- 
ished hero, in the memories of the good and true of 
all Christian climes. 

The British Government and people received more 
than they conferred of honor, in their earnest and un- 
sparing tributes to his memory. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FURTHER DETAILS OF THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE. 

The Last Night — Expires in the Act of Praying — Council of the Men — Noble 
Conduct of Cliitambo — The Preparation of the Corpse — Honor Shown to Dr. 
Livingstone — Interment of the Heart at Chitambo's — Homeward March from 
Ilala — Illness of all the Men — Deaths — The Luapulu — Reach Tanganyika — 
Leave the Lake — Cross the Lambalamfipa Range — Immense Herds of Game 
— News of East Coast Search Expedition — Confirmation of News — Avant- 
Couriers sent P^orward to Unyanyembe — Chuma Meets Lieut. Cameron — Sad 
Death of Dr. Dillon — The Body Effectually Concealed — Arrival on the Coast. 

[We shall now refer to the last words written in 
Dr. Livingstone's diary. A copy of the two pages in his 
pocket-book w^hich contains them is, by the help of 
photography, set before the reader. It is evident that 
he was unable to do more than make the shortest 
memoranda, and to mark on the map y^hich he was 
making the streams which enter the lake as he crossed 
them. From the 22d to the 27th ot April he had not 
strength to write down anything but the several dates. 
Fortunately, Susi and Chuma give a very clear and cir- 
cumstantial account of every incident which occurred 
on these days, and we shall therefore add what they 
say, after each of the Doctor's entries. He writes :] 

21st April. — Tried to ride, but was forced to lie down, 
and they carried me back to vil. exhausted. 

[The men explain this entry thus : This morning the 
Doctor tried if he were strong enough to ride on the 
donkey, but he had only gone a short distance when he 
fell to the ground, utterly exhausted and faint. Susi 
immediately undid his belt and pistol, and picked up 







Fac-Simile of the Last Entries in 



1^^ V .\'L 



JJR. Livingstone's Note- Book. 



THKOUGH THE WILDS OF AFEICA. 301 

liis cap, which had dropped off, while Chuma threw 
down his gun, and ran to stop the men on ahead. When 
he got back, the Doctor said, " Chuma, I have lost so 
much blood, there is no more strength left in my legs ; 
you must carry me." He was then assisted gently to 
his shoulders, and, holding the man's head to steady 
himself, was borne back to the village, and placed in 
the hut he had so recently left. It was necessary to let 
the chief Muanzambamba know what had happened, 
and for this purpose Dr. Livingstone despatched a mes- 
senger. He was directed to ask him to supply a guide 
for the next day, as he trusted then to have recovered so 
far as to be able to march. The answer was, " Stay as 
long as you wish, and when you want guides to Kalun- 
ganjovu's you shall have them."] 

22d April. — Carried on kitanda over Buga southwest 
two and a quarter.* 

[Instead of rallying, his strength was becoming les» 
and less ; and in order to carry him, his servants made 
a kitanda of wood, consisting of two side-pieces of seven 
feet in length crossed with rails three feet long, and 
about four inches apart, the whole lashed strongly 
together. This frame-work was covered with grass, 
and a blanket laid on it. Slung from a pole, and 
born between two strong men, it made a tolerable 
palanquin, and on this the exhausted traveler was con- 
veyed to the next village through a flooded grass plain. 
To render the kitanda more comfortable, another blanket 
was suspended across the pole, so as to hang down on 
either side, and allow the air to pass under while the 
sun's rays were fended off from the sick man. The 

* Two hours and a quarter in a south-westerly direction. 



302 STANLEYS stoey; or, 

start was deferred this morning until tlie dew was off 
the heads of the long grass sufficiently to insure his 
being kept tolerably dry. 

The excruciating pains of his dysenteric malady caused 
him the greatest exhaustion as they marched, and they 
were glad enough to reach another village in two hours 
and a quarter, having traveled southwest from the last 
point. Here another hut was built. The villagers fled 
at their approach ; indeed the noise made by the drums 
sounding the alarm had been caught by the Doctor some 
time before, and he exclaimed with thankfulness on 
hearing it, " Ah, now we are near !"] 

23^ April. — (No entry except the date.) 
[They advanced another hour and a half through the 
same expanse of flooded, treeless waste, passing numbers 
of small fish-weirs set in such a manner as to catch the 
fish on their way back to the Lake, but seeing nothing 
of the owners, who had either hidden themselves or 
taken to flight on the approach of the caravan. Another 
village afforded them a night's shelter, but it seems not 
to be known by any particular name.] 
24ith April — (No entry except the date.) 
[But one hour's march was accomplished to-day, and 
again they halted among some huts. His great prostra- 
tion made progress exceedingly painful, and frequently, 
when it was necessary to stop the bearers of the kitanda, 
Chuma had to support the Doctor from falling.] 
25ih April.—- (No entry except the date.) 
[In an hour's course southwest they arrived at a vil- 
lage in which they found a few people. While his ser- 
vants were busy completing the hut for the night's 
encampment, the Doctor, who was lying in a shady place 



THEOUGH THE WILBS OF AFRICA. 303 

on the kitanda, ordered them to fetch one of the villagers. 
The chief of the place had disappeared, but the rest of 
his people seemed quite at their ease, and drew near to 
hear what was going to be said. They were asked 
whether they knew of a hill on which four rivers took 
their rise. The spokesman answered that they had no 
knowledge of it; they themselves, said he, were not 
travelers, and all those who used to go on trading expe- 
ditions were now dead. In former years Malenga's 
town, Kutchinyama, was the assembling place of the 
Wabisa traders, but these had been swept off by the 
Mazitu. Such as survived had to exist as best they 
could among the swamps and inundated districts around 
the Lake. Whenever an expedition was organized to 
go to the coast, or in any other direction travelers met 
at Malenga's town to talk over the route to be taken ; 
then would have been the time, said they, to get infor- 
mation about every part. Dr. Livingstone was here 
obliged to dismiss them, and explained that he was too 
ill to continue talking, but he begged them to bring as 
much food as they could for sale to Kalunganjovu's.] 
26^A April.— (No entry except the date.) 
[They proceeded as far as Kalunganjovu's town, the 
chief himself coming to meet them on the way, dressed 
in Arab costume and wearing a red fez. While waiting 
here, Susi was instructed to count over the bags of beads, 
and on reporting that twelve still remained in stock, 
Dr. Livingstone told him to buy two large tusks if an 
opportunity occurred, as he might run short of goods by 
the time they got to Ujiji, and could then exchange 
them with the Arabs there for cloth, to spmd on their 
way to Zanzibar. 



304 Stanley's story; or, 

To-day, April ^Zlth, 1873, he seems to have been 
almost dying. No entry at all was made in his diary 
after that which follows, and it must have taxed him to 
the utmost to write. 

"Knocked up quite, and remain — reoover — sent to 
buy milch goats. We are on the banks of the Moli- 
lamo.'' 

[They are the last words that David Livingstone 
wrote. From this point we have to trust entirely to the 
narrative of the men. They explain the above sentence 
as follows : Salimane, Amisi, Hamsani, and Laede, ac- 
companied by a guide, were sent off to endeavor, if pos- 
sible, to buy some milch goats on the upper part of the 
Molilamo. (The name Molilamo is allowed to stand, but 
in Dr. Livingstone's map we find it Lulimala, and the 
men confirm this pronunciation.) They could not, how- 
ever, succeed; it was always the same story — the Mazitu 
had taken everything. The chief, nevertheless, sent a 
substantial present of a kid and three baskets of ground- 
nuts, and the people were willing enough to exchange 
food for beads. Thinking he could eat some mapira 
corn pounded up with ground-nuts, the doctor gave in- 
structions to the two women, M'sozi and M'toweka, to 
prepare it for him, but he was not able to take it when 
they brought it to him.] 

28^A April. — Men were now dispatched in an oppo- 
site direction, that is, to visit the villages on the right 
bank of the Molilamo as it flow^s to the Lake ; unfortu- 
nately, they met with no better result, and returned 
empty handed. 

On April 22th, Kalunganjovu and most of his people 
came early to the village. The chief wished to assist 



THROUGH THE WILDd 01"^ AFRICA^ 305 

his guest to the utmost, and stated mat as he could not 
be sure that a sufficient number of canoes would be 
forthcoming unless he took charge of matters himself, 
he should accompany the caravan to the crossing-place, 
which was about an hour's march from the spot. 
*' Everything should be done for his friend," he said. 

They were ready to set out. On Susi's going to the 
hut, Dr. Livingstone told him that he was quite unable 
to walk to the door to reach the kitanda, and he wished 
the men to break down one side of the little house, as 
the entrance was too narrow to admit it, and in this 
manner to bring it to him where he was ; this was done, 
and he was gently placed upon it, and borne out of the 
village. 

Their course was in the direction of the stream, and 
they followed it till they came to a reach where the 
current was uninterrupted by the numerous little islands 
which stood partly in the river, and partly in the flood 
on the upper waters. Kalunganjovu was seated on a 
knoll, and actively superintended the embarkation, while 
Dr. Livingstone told his bearers to take him to a tree 
at a little distance off, that he might rest in the shade 
till most of the men were on the other side. A good 
deal of care was required, for the river, by no means a 
large one in ordinary times, spread its waters in all 
directions, so that a false step, or a stumble in any un- 
seen hole, would have drenched the invalid and the bed 
also on which he was carried. 

A good deal of care was required for the difficult task 
of conveying the Doctor across, for the canoes were not 
wide enough to allow the kitanda to be deposited in the 
bottom of either of them. Hitherto, Livingstone had 



306 Stanley's story; or, 

always been able to sit in the various canoes they had 
used, but now he had no power to do sOo Taking his 
bed off the kitanda, they laid it in the bottom of the 
strongest canoe, and tried to lift him ; but he could not 
bear the pain of a hand being passed und'jr his back. 
Beckoning to Chuma, in a faint voice he asked him to 
stoop down over him as low as possible, so that he might 
clasp his hands together behind his head, directing him at 
the same time how to avoid putting any pressure on the 
lumbar region of the back ; in this way he was deposited 
in the bottom of the canoe, and quickly ferried across 
the Molilamo. The same precautions were used on the 
other side ; the kitanda was brought close to the canoe, 
so as to prevent any unnecessary pain in disembarking. 

Susi now hurried on ahead to reach Chitambo's vil- 
lage, and superintend the building of another house. 
For the first mile or two they had to carry the Doctor 
through swamps and plashes, glad to reach something 
like a dry plain at last. 

It would seem that his strength was here at its very 
lowest ebb. Chuma, one of his bearers on these, the last 
weary miles the great traveler was destined to accom- 
plish, says, that they were every now and then im- 
plored to stop and place their burden on the ground. 
So great were the pangs of his disease during this day 
that he could make no attempt to stand, and if lifted for 
a few yards a drowsiness came over him, which alarmed 
them all excessively. This was specially the case at one 
spot where a tree stood in the path. Here one of his at- 
tendants was called to him, and, on stooping down, he 
found him unable to speak from faintness. They re- 
placed him in the kitanda, and made the best of their 



THROTTGH THE WiLDS 01^ AFRICA. 807 

way on the journey. Some distance farther on great 
thirst oppressed him ; he asked them if they had any 
water, but, unfortunately, for once, not a drop was to be 
procured. Hastening on for fear of getting too far sepa- 
rated from the party in advance, to thoir great comfort 
they now saw Farijala approaching w^ith some, which 
Susi had thoughtfully sent off from Chitambo's village. 

Still wending their way on, it seemed as if they would 
not complete their task, for again at a clearing the sick 
man entreated them to place him on the ground, and to 
let him stay where he was. Fortunately at this moment 
some of the outlying huts of the village came in sight, 
and they tried to rally him by telling him that he would 
quickly be in the house that the others had gone to 
build ; but they were obliged, as it was, to allow him to 
remain for an hour in the native gardens outside the 
town. 

On reaching their companions, it was found that the 
work was not quite finished, and it became necessary, 
therefore, to lay him under the broad eaves of a native 
hut till things were ready. 

Chitambo's village at this time was almost empty. 
When the crops are growing, it is the custom to erect 
little temporary houses in the fields, and the inhabitants, 
leaving their more substantial huts, pass the time in 
watching their crops, wdiich are scarcely more safe by 
day than by night ; thus it was that the men found 
plenty of room and shelter ready to their hand. Many 
of the people approached the spot where he lay whose 
praises had reached them in previous years, and in silent 
wonder they stood around him, resting on their bows. 
Slight drizzling showers were falling, and as soon as 



308 STANLEY*S STOPvY ; Olt, 

possible his house was made ready, and banked around 
with earth. 

Inside, the bed was raised from the floor by sticks and 
grass, occupying a position pcross and near to the bay- 
shaped end of the hut; in the bay itself bales and boxes 
were deposited, one of the latter doing duty for a table, 
on which the medicine-chest and sundry other things 
were placed. A fire was lighted outside, nearly opposite 
the door, while the boy, Majwara, slept just within, to 
attend to his master's wants in the night. 

On April SOth, 1873, Chitambo came early to pay a 
visit of courtesy, and was shown into the Doctor's pres- 
ence ; but the Doctor was obliged to send him away, 
telling him to come again on the morrow, when he hoped 
to have more strength to talk to him, and he was not 
again disturbed. In the afternoon he asked Susi to 
bring his watch to the bedside, and explained to him 
the position in which to hold his hand, that it mnght lie 
in the palm while he slowly turned the key. 

So the hours stole on till night-fall. Some of the 
men silently took to their huts, while others, whose 
duty it was to keep watch, sat around the fires, all feel- 
ing that the end could not be far off. About 11 p.m., 
Susi, whose hut was close by, was told to go to his 
master. At the time there were loud shouts in the dis- 
tance, and, on entering. Dr. Livingstone said, " Are our 
men making that noise?" "No," replied Susi; "I can 
hear, from the cries, that the people are scaring away a 
buffalo from their dura fields." A few minutes after- 
ward he said, slowly, and evidently wandering, " Is this 
Luapula ?" Susi told him they were in Chitambo's vil- 
lage, near the Molilamo, when he was silent for a while. 




8USI AND CHUMA, THE FAST FRIENDS OF LIVINGSTONE; 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 309 

Again, speaking to Susi, in Suaheli this time, he said, 
" How many days is it to the Luapula ?'' " I think it 
is three days, master," replied Susi. 

A few seconds after, as if in great pain, he half 
sighed, half said, '*0h dear^ dear!" and then dozed off 
again. 

It was about, an hour later that Susi heard Majwara 
again outside the door, " Bwana wants you, Susi." The 
Doctor \7ished him to boil some water, and for this pur- 
pose he went to the fire outside, and soon returne(J with 
the copper kettle fall. Calling him close, he asked him 
to bring his medicine-chest, and to hold the candle near 
him, for the man noticed he could hardly see. With 
great difiiculty the Doctor selected the calomel, which 
he told him to place by his side; then, directing him to 
pour a little water into a cup, and to put another empty 
one by it, he said, in a low, feeble voice, " All right ; 
you can go out now." These were the last words he was 
ever heard to speak. 

It must have been about 4 a.m. when Susi heard 
Majwara's step once more. " Come to Bwana ; I am 
afraid ; I don't know if he is alive." The lad's evident 
alarm made Susi run to arouse Chuma, Chowpere, Mat- 
thew, and Muanuasere, and the six men went immedi- 
ately to the hut. 

Passing inside, they looked toward the bed. Dr. 
Livingstone was not lying on it, but appeared to be 
engaged in prayer, and they instinctively drew back- 
ward for the instant. Pointing to him, Majwara said, 
^' When I lay down he was just as he is now, and it is 
because I find that he does not move that I fear he is 
dead." They asked the lad how long he had slept ? 



o 



10 Stanley's stoky; oe,, 



Majwara said he could not tell, but he was sure that 
it was some considerable time ; the men drew nearer. 

A candle, stuck by its own wax to the top of the 
box, shed a light sufficient for them to see his form. 
Dr. Livingstone was kneeling by the side of his bed, 
his body stretched forward, his head buried in his 
hands upon the pillow. For a minute they watched 
him ; he did not stir, there was no sign of breathing ; 
then one of them, Matthew, advanced softly to him, and 
placed his hands to his cheeks. It was sufficient ; life 
had been extinct some time, and the body was almost 
cold ; Livingstone was dead. 

His sad-hearted servants raised him tenderly up, and 
laid him full length on the bed ; then, carefully cover- 
ing him, they went out into the damp night air to con- 
sult together. It was not long before the cocks crew; 
and it is from this circumstance — coupled with the fad 
that Susi spoke to him some time shortly before mid- 
night — that we are able to state with tolerable accuracy 
that he expired early on the 1st of May. 

It has been thought best to give the narrative of these 
closing "hours as nearly as possible in the words of the 
two men who attended him constantly, both here and in 
the many illnesses of like character which he endured 
in his last six years' wanderings ; in fact, from the first 
moment of the news arriving in England, it was felt to 
be indispensable that they should come home to state 
what occurred. 

The men have much to consider as they cower around 
the watch-fire, and little time for deliberation. They 
are at their farthest point from home, and their leader 
has fallen at their head ; we shall see presently how 
they faced their difficulties. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 311 

Several inquiries will naturally arise, on reading this 
distressing history ; the first, perhaps, will be with 
regard to the entire absence of everything like a parting 
word to those immediately about him, or a farewell line 
to his family and friends at home. It must be very 
evident to the reader that Livingstone entertained very 
grave forebodings about his health during the last two 
years of his life, but it is not clear that he realized the 
near approach of death when his malady suddenly 
passed into a more dangerous stage.' 

It may be said, " Why did he not take some precau- 
tions or give some strict injunctions to his men to pre- 
serve his note-books and maps at all hazards, in the 
event of his decease ?" Did not his great ruling passion 
suggest some such precaution ? 

Fair questions, but, reader, you have all — every word 
written, spoken, or implied. 

Is there, then, no explanation ? Yes ; we think past 
experience affords it, and it is among the peculiar fea- 
tures of death by malarial poisoning. 

In eight deaths on the Zambesi and Shire districts, 
not a single parting word or direction in any instance 
was uttered. Neither hope nor courage give way as 
death approaches. In most cases, a comatose state of 
exhaustion supervenes, which, if it be not quickly 
arrested by active measures, passes into complete insen- 
sibility; this is almost invariably the closing scene. 

In Dr. Livingstone's case, we find some departure 
from the ordinary symptoms. The great loss of blood 
may have had a bearing on the case. He was alive to 
the conviction that malarial poison is the basis of every 
disorder in Tropical Africa, and he did not doubt but 
that he was fully under its influence while suffering so 



312 ' Stanley's stoey ; or, 

severely » A man of less endurance in all probability 
would have perished in the first week of the terrible 
approach to the lake, through the flooded country and 
under the continual downpour that he describes. It 
tried every constitution, saturated every man with fever- 
poisouj and destroyed severah The greater vitality in 
his iron system very likely staved off for a few days the 
last state of coma to which we refer ; but there is quite 
sufficient to show us that only a thin margin lay between 
the heavy drowsiness of the last few days before reach- 
ing Chitambo's and the final and usual symptom that 
brings on unconsciousness and inability to speak. 

He hoped to recover as he had so often done before ; 
and this in a measure accounts for the absence of any- 
thing like a dying statement. It may be that at the 
last a flash of conviction for a moment lighted up the 
mind ; if so, what greater consolation can those have 
who mourn his loss, than the account that the men give 
of what they saw when they entered the hut ? Living- 
stone had not merely turned himself, he had risen to 
pray; he still rested on his knees, his hands were 
clasped under his head ; when they approached him, he 
seemed to live. He had not fallen to right or left when 
he rendered up his spirit to God. Death required no 
change of limb or position ; there was merely the gentle 
settling forward of the frame unstrung by pain, for the 
Traveler's perfect rest had come. 

Before daylight the men were quietly told in each 
hut what had happened, and that they were to assemble. 
Susi and Chuma wished every body to be present while 
the boxes were opened, so that, in case money or valu- 
ables were in them, all might be responsible. Jacob 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 313 

Walnwriglit (who could write, tliey knew) was asked 
to make some notes which should serve as an inven- 
tory, and then the boxes were brought out from the hut. 

Before he left England in 1865, Dr. Livingstone had 
arranged that his traveling equipment should be as 
compact as possible. An old friend gave him some ex- 
ceedingly well-made tin boxes, two of which lasted out 
the whole of his travelso In these his papers and in- 
struments were safe from wet and from white ants, 
which have to be guarded against more than anything 
else. Besides the articles mentioned below, a number 
of letters and dispatches in various stages were likewise 
inclosed, and one can never sufficiently extol the good 
feeling which after his death invested all these writings 
with something like a sacred care in the estimation of 
all his men. It was the Doctor's custom to carry a 
small metallic note-book in his pocket ; a quantity of 
these have come to hand, filled from end to end ; and as 
the men preserved every one that they found, we have 
almost a daily entry to fall back upon. Nor was less 
care shown for his rifles, sextants, his Bible and Church- 
service, and the medicine chest. 

Jacob's entry is as follows, and it was thoughtfully 
made at the back end of the same note-book that was in 
use by the Doctor when he died. It runs as follows : 

" II o'clock night, 28th April. 

" In the chest was found about a shilling and a half, 
and in other chest his hat, one watch, and two small 
boxes of measuring instrments, and in each box there 
was one. One compass, three other kind of measuring 
instruments. Four other kind of measuring instruments. 
And in another chest three drachmas and half half 
scrople." 



314 Stanley's story; or, 

A word is necessary concerning the first j)art of this. 
It will be observed that Dr. Livingstone made his last 
note on the 27th of AjDril. Jacob, referring to it as the 
only indication of the day of the month, and fancying, 
moreover, that it was written on the preceding day, 
wrote down " 28th April." Had he observed that the 
few words opposite the 27th in the pocket-book related 
to the stay at Kalunganjovu's village, and not to any 
portion of the time at Chitambo's the error would have 
been avoided. Again, with respect to the time. It 
was about 11 o'clock p.m, when Susi last saw his master 
alive, and therefore this time is noted ; but both he and 
Chuma feel quite sure, from what Majwara said, that 
death did not take place till some hours after. 

It was not without some alarm that the men realized 
their more immediate difficulties ; none could see better 
than they what complications might arise in an hour. 

They knew the superstitious horror connected with 
the dead prevalent in the tribes around them, for the 
departed spirits of men are universally believed to have 
vengeance and mischief at heart as their ruling idea in 
the land be3^ond the grave. All rites turn on this belief 
The religion of the African is a weary attempt to pro- 
pitiate those who show themselves to be still able to 
haunt and destroy, as war comes on or an accident 
happens. 

On this account it is not to be wondered at that chief 
and people make common cause against those who wan- 
der through their territory, and have the misfortune to 
lose one of their party by death. Such occurrences are 
looked on as most serious offences, and the men regarded 
their position with no small apprehension. 



THROUGH THE WILD& OF AFBICA. 315 

Calling tlie whole party together, Susi and Chuma 
placed the state of aflPairs before them, and asked what 
should be done. They received a reply from those 
whom Mr. Stanley had engaged for Dr. Livingstone, 
which was hearty and unanimous. " You," said they, 
" are old men in traveling and in hardships ; you must 
act as our chiefs, and we will promise to obey whatever 
you order us to do." From this moment we may look 
on Susi and Chuma as the captains of the caravan. To 
their knowledge of the country, of the tribes through 
which they were to pass, but, above all, to the sense of 
discipline and cohesion which was maintained through- 
out their safe return to Zanzibar at the head of their 
men must, under God's good guidance, be mainly attri- 
buted. 

All agreed that Chitambo must be kept in ignorance 
of Dr. Livingstone's decease, or otherwise a fine so 
heavy would be inflicted upon them as compensation for 
damage done that their means would be crippled, and 
they could hardly expect to pay their way to the coast. 
It was decided that, come what might, the body must be 
borne to Zanzibar. It was also arranged to take it 
secretly, if possible, to a hut at some distance off, where 
the necessary preparations could be carried out, and for 
this purpose some men were now dispatched with axes 
to cut wood, while others went to collect grass. Chuma 
set off to see Chitambo, and said that they wanted to 
build a place outside the village, if he would allow it, 
for they did not like living among the huts. His con- 
sent was willingly given. 

Later on in the day two of the men went to the people 
to buy food, and divulged the secret ; the chief was at 



316 Stanley's stoey; or, 

once informed of what had happened, and started foi 
the spot on which the new buildings were being set up. 
Appealing to Chuma, he said, " Why did you not tell 
me the truth ? I know that your master died last night. 
You were afraid to let me know, but do not fear any 
longer. I, too, have traveled, and more than once have 
been to Bwani (the coast) , before the country on the 
road was destroyed by the Mazitu. I know that you 
have no bad motives in coming to our land, and death 
often happens to travelers in their journeys." Re- 
assured by this speech, they told him of their intention 
to prepare the body, and to take it with them. He, 
however, said it would be far better to bury it there, for 
they were undertaking an impossible task; but they 
held to their resolution. The corpse was conveyed to 
the new hut the same day on the kitanda, carefully 
covered with cloth and a blanket. 

2d May, 1873.— The next morning Susi paid a visit 
to Chitambo, making him a handsome present, and re- 
ceiving in return a kind welcome. It is only right to 
add that the men speak on all occasions with gratitude 
of Chitambo's conduct throughout, and say that he is ^ 
fine, generous fellow. Following out his suggestion, it 
was agreed that all honors should be shown to the dead, 
and the customary mourning was arranged forthwith. 

At the proper time, Chitambo, leading his people, 
and accompanied by his wives, came to the new settle- 
ment. He was clad in a broad red cloth, which covered 
the shoulders, while the wrapping of native cotton 
cloth, worn round the waist, fell as low as his ankles. 
All carried bows, arrows, and spears, but no guns were 
seen. Two drummers joined in the loud wailing lamen- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFEICA. 317 

tation, which so indelibly impresses itself on the memo- 
ries of people who have heard it in the East, while the 
band of servants fired volley after volley in the air, 
according to the strict rule of Portuguese and Arabs on 
such occasions. 

As yet, nothing had been done to the corpse. 

A separate hut was now built, about ninety feet from 
the principal one. It was constructed in such a manner 
that it should be open to the air at the top, and suffi- 
ciently strong to defy the attempts of any wild beast to 
break through it. Firmly driven boughs and saplings 
were planted side by side, and bound together, so as to 
make a regular stockade. Close to this building the 
men constructed their huts, and, finally, the whole set- 
tlement had another high stockade carried completely 
around it. 

Arrangements were made the same day to treat the 
corpse on the following morning. One of the men, Sa- 
fene, while in Kalunganjovu's district, bought a large 
quantity of salt ; this was purchased of him for six- 
teen strings of beads ; there was, besides, some brandy 
in the Doctor's stores, and with these few materials they 
hoped to succeed in their object. 

Farijala was appointed to the necessary task. He 
had picked up some knowledge of the method pursued 
in making post-mortem examinations while a servant to 
a doctor at Zanzibar, and at his request Carras, one of 
the Nassick boys, was told off to assist him. Previous 
to this, however, early on May 3d, a special mourner 
arrived. He came with the anklets which are worn on 
these occasions, composed of rows of hollow seed-vessels 
filled with rattling pebbles, and in low, monotonous 



318 Stanley's stoey; or, 

chant sang, while he danced, what, translated into Eng- 
lish, would read: 

" To-day the Englishman is dead. 
Who has different hair from ours ; 
Come round to see the Englishman. " 

His task over, the mourner and his son, who accom- 
panied him in the ceremony, retired with a suitable 
present of beads. 

The emaciated remains of the deceased traveler were 
soon afterward taken to the place prepared. Over the 
heads of Farijala and Carras, Susi, Chuma, and Muanu* 
asere held a thick blanket as a kind of screen, under 
which the men performed their duties. Tofike and 
John Wainwright were present. Jacob Wainwright 
had been asked to bring his Prayer-book with him, and 
stood apart against the wall of the inclosure. 

In reading about the lingering sufferings of Dr. Liv- 
ingstone as described by himself, and subsequently by 
these faithful fellows, one is quite |)repared to under- 
stand their explanation, and to see why it was possible 
to defer these operations so long after death ; they say 
that his frame was little more than skin and bone. 
Through an incision carefully made, the viscera were 
removed, and a quantity of salt was placed in the trunk. 
All noticed one very significant circumstance in the 
autopsy. A clot of coagulated blood, as large as a man's 
hand, lay in the left side,* while Farijala pointed to the 
state of the lungs, which they described as dried up, 
and covered with black-and-white patches. 

The heart, with the other parts removed, were placed 

* It has been suggested by one who attended Dr. Livingstone professionally in 
several dangerous illnesses in Africa, that the ultimate cause of death was acute 
splenitis. 



THKOUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 319 

in a tin box, which had formerly contained flour, and 
decently and reverently buried in a hole dug some four 
feet deep on the spot where they stood. Jacob then 
read the English Church Burial Service, in the presence 
of all. The body was then left fully exposed to the 
sun. No other means were taken to preserve it, beyond 
placing some brandy in the mouth and some in the hair ; 
nor can one imagine tor an instant that any other pro- 
cess would have been available either for Europeans or 
natives, considering the rude appliances at their disposal. 
The men kept watch day and night to see that no harm 
came to their sacred charge. Once a day the position 
of the body was changed, but at no other time was any 
one allowed to approach it. 

No molestation of any kind took place during the 
fourteen days exposure. At the end of this period pre- 
parations were made for retracing their steps. The 
corpse, tolerably dried, was wrapped round in some 
calico, the legs being bent inward at the knees to shorten 
the padriige. The next thing was to plan something in 
which to carry it, and in the absence of planking or 
tools, an admirable substitute was found by stripping 
from a myonga tree enough of the bark in one piece to 
form a cylinder, and in it their master was laid. Over 
this case a piece of sail-cloth was sewn, and the whole 
package was lashed securely to a pole, so as to be carried 
by two men. 

Jacob Wainwright was asked to carve an inscription 
L)n the large mvula-tree which stands by the place 
where the body rested, stating the name of Dr. Living- 
ston'^ and the date o^ his death ; and, before leaving, 
the men gaya strict mj unctions tc Chitambo to keep the 



320 Stanley's story; or, 

grass cleared away, so as to save it from the bush-fires 
which annually sweep over the country and destroy so 
many trees. Besides this, they erected close to the spot 
two high, thick posts, with an equally strong cross- 
piece, like a lintel and door posts in form, which they 
painted thoroughly with the tar that was intended for 
the boat ; this sign they think will remain for a long 
time, from the solidity of the timber. Before parting 
with Chitambo, they gave him a large tin biscuit-box 
and some newspapers, which would serve as evidence to 
all future travelers that a white man had been at this 
village. 

The homeward march was then begun. Throughout 
its length we shall content ourselves with giving the 
approximate number of days occupied in traveling and 
halting. Although the memories of both men are ex- 
cellent — standing the severest test by the light of Dr. 
Livingstone's journals, or " set on" at any passage of his 
travels — still they kept no precise record of the time 
spent at villages where they were detained by sickness, 
and so the exactness of a diary can no longer be sus- 
tained. 

They found, on the first day's journey, that some 
other precautions were necessary to enable the bearers 
of the mournful burden to keep to their task. Sending 
to Chitambo's village, they brought thence the cask of 
tar which they had deposited with the chief, and gave a 
thick coating to the canvas outside. This answered all 
purposes ; they left the remainder at the next village, 



THKOTJGH THE WILDS OF AFEICA. 821 

with, orders to send it back to headquarters, and then 
continued their course through Ilala, led by their guides 
in the direction of the Luapulu. 

A moment's inspection of the map will explain the 
line of co^mtry traversed. Susi and Chuma had traveled 
with Dr. Livingstone in the neighborhood of the north- 
west shores of Bangweolo in previous years. The last 
fatal road from the north might be struck by a march in 
a due northeast direction, if they could but hold out so 
far without any serious misfortune ; but, in order to do 
this, they must first strike northward so as to reach the 
Luapulu, and then crossing it at some part not necessa- 
rily far from its exit from the lake, they could at once 
lay their course for the south end of Tanganyika. 

There were, however, serious indications among th em 
First one and then the other dropped out of the file, and 
by the time they reached a town belonging to Chitambo's 
brother — and on the third day only since they set out 
' — half their number were sick. It was impossible to go 
on. A. few hours more, and all seemed affected. The 
symptoms were intense pain in the limbs and face, great 
prostration, and, in the bad cases, inability to move. 
The men attributed it to the continual wading through 
water before the Doctor's death. They think that ill- 
ness had been waiting for some further slight provoca- 
tion, and that the day's previous tramp, which was almost 
entirely through plashy bougas, or swamps, turned the 
scale against them. 

Susi was suffering very much. The disease settled in 
one leg, and then quickly shifted to the other. Songolo 
nearly died. Kaniki and Behati, two of the women, 
expired in a few days, and all looked at its worst. It 



322 sta:n-ley's stoby; or, 

took tKem a good montli to rally sufficiently to resume 
their journey. 

Fortunately, in this interval, the rains entirely ceased, 
and the natives day by day brought an abundance of 
food to the sick men. From them they heard that the 
districts they were now in were notoriously unhealthy, 
and that many an Arab had fallen out from the caravan 
march, to leave his bones in these wastes. One day ^Ye 
of the party made an excursion to the westward, and on 
their return reported a large deep river flowing into the 
Luapula on the left bank. Unfortunately no notice was 
taken of its name, for it would be of considerable geo- 
graphical interest. 

At last they were ready to start again, and came to 
one of the border villages in Ilala the same night ; but 
the next day several fell ill for the second time, Susi 
being quite unable to move. 

Muanamazungu, at whose place these ' relapses oc- 
curred, was fully aware of everything that had taken 
place at Chitambo's, and showed the men the greatest 
kindness. Not a day passed without his bringing them 
some present or other, but there was a great disinclina- 
tion among the people to listen to any details connected 
with Dr. Livingstone's death. Some return for their 
kindness was made by Farijala shooting three buffaloes 
near the town ; meat and good-will go together all over 
Africa, and the liberal sportsman scores points at many 
a turn. A cow was purchased here for some brass 
bracelets and calico, and on the twentieth day all were 
sufficiently strong on their legs to push forward. 

The broad waters of the long-looked for Luapula soon 
appeared in sight. Putting themselves under a guide, 



THEOUGH THE WiLDS OI' AFRICA. 323 

they wore conducted to the village of Chisalamalama, 
who willingly offered them canoes for the passage across 
the next day.* 

As one listens to the report that the men give of this 
mighty river, he instinctively bends his eyes on a dark 
burden laid in the canoe ! How ardently would he have 
scanned it whose body thus passes across these waters, 
and whose spirit, in its last hours' sojourn in this world, 
wandered in thought and imagination to its stream ! 

It would seem that the Luapula at this point is double 
the width of the Zambesi at Shupanga. This gives a 
breadth of fully four miles. A man could not be seen 
on the opposite bank ; trees looked small ; a gun could 
be heard, but no shouting would ever reach a person 
across the river — such is the description given by those 
who were well able to compare the Luapula with the 
Zambesi. Taking to the canoes, they were able to use 
the " m'phondo," or punting-pole, for a distance through 
reeds, then came clear, deep water for some four hun- 
dred yards, again a broad, reedy expanse, followed by 
another deep part, succeeded in turn by another current 
not so broad as those previously paddled across, and 
then, as on the starting side, gradually shoaling water, 
abounding in reeds. Two islands lay just above the 
crossing-place. Using pole and paddle alternately, the 
passage took them fully two hours across this enormous 
torrent, which carries off the waters of Bangweolo 
toward the north. 



*The men consider it five days' march "only carrying a gun" from the 
Molilamo to the bank of the Luapula — this in rough reckoning, at the rate of 
native traveling, would give a distance of say one hundred and twenty to one 
hundred and fifty miles. 



o 



4 STANLEYS STOKY; OB, 



A sad mishap befell the donkey the first night of 
camping beyond the Luapula, and this faithful and 
sorely-tried servant was doomed to end his career at 
this spot ! 

According to custom, a special stable was built for 
him close to the men. In the middle of the night a 
great disturbance, coupled with the shouting of Amoda, 
aroused the camp. The men rushed out, and found the 
stable broken down, and the donkey gone. Snatching 
some logs, they set fire to the grass, as it was pitch dark, 
and by the light saw a lion close to the body of the poor 
animal, which was quite dead. Those who had caught 
up their guns on the first alarm fired a volley, and the 
lion made off. It was evident that the donkev had been 
seized by the nose, and instantly killed. At daylight 
the spoor showed that the guns had taken effect. The 
lion's blood lay in a broad track (for he was apparently 
injured in the back, and could only drag himself along); 
but the foot-prints of a second lion were too plain to 
make it advisable to track him far in the thick cover he 
had reached, and so the search was abandoned. The 
body of the donkey was left behind ; but two canoes 
remained near the village, and it is most probable that 
it went to make a feast at Chisalamalama's. 

Travelling through incessant swamp and water, they 
were fain to make their next stopping-place in a spot 
where an enormous ant-hill spread itself out — a small 
island in the waters. A fire was lighted, and by em- 
ploying hoes, most of them dug something like a form 
to sleep in on the hard earth. 

Thankful to leave such a place, their guide led them 
next day to the village of Kawinga, whom they describe 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 325 

as a tall man, of singularly light color, and the owner 
of a gun, a unique weapon in these parts, but one already 
made useless by wear and tear. The next village, 
N'kossu's, was much more important. The people, 
called Kawende, formerly owned plenty of cattle, but 
now they are reduced ; the Banyamwezi have put them 
under the harrow, and but few herds remain. It is a 
somewhat singular fact that the hump quite disappears 
in the lake breed ; the cows would pass for respectable 
short-horns. 

A present was made to the caravan of a cow ; but it 
seems that the rule, " First catch your hare," is in full 
force in N'kossu's pastures. The animals are exceed- 
ingly wild, and a hunt has to be set on foot whenever 
beef is wanted ; it was so in this case. Safene and 
Muanuasere, with their guns, essayed to settle the diffi- 
culty. The latter, an old hunter, was not likely to do 
much harm ; but Safene, firing wildly at the cow, hit 
one of the villagers, and smashed the bone of the poor 
fellow's thigh. Although it was clearly an accident, 
such things do not readily settle themselves down on 
this assumption in Africa. The chief, however, behaved 
very well. He told them a fine would have to be paid 
on the return of the wounded man's father, and it had 
better be handed to him, for by law the blame would 
fall on him, as the entertainer of the man who had 
brought about the injury. He admitted that he had or- 
dered all his people to stand clear of the spot where the 
disaster occurred, but he supposed that in this instance 
his orders had not been heard. They had not sufficient 
goods in any case to respond to the demand. The pro- 
cess adopted to set the broken limb is a sample of native 
surgery which must not be passed over. 



326 • '^^ 



STAl^LEYS story; OR, 

First of all, a hole was dug, say two feet deep and 
four in length, in such a manner that the patient could 
sit in it with his legs out before him. A large leaf was 
then bound round the fractured thigh, and earth thrown 
in so that the patient was buried up to the chest. The 
next act was to cover the earth which lay over the man's 
legs with a thick layer of mud ; then plenty of sticks 
and grass were collected, and a fire lighted on the top 
directly over the fracture. To prevent the smoke 
smothering the sufferer, they held a tall mat as a screen 
before his face, and the operation went on. After some 
time the heat reached the limbs under-ground. Bellow- 
ing with fear, and covered with perspiration, the man 
implored them to let him out. The authorities conclud- 
ing that he had been under treatment a sufficient time, 
quickly burrowed down and lifted him from the hole. 
He was now held perfectly fast, while two strong men 
stretched the wounded limb with all their might! 
Splints duly prepared were afterward bound round it, 
and we must hope that in due time benefit accrued ; 
but as the ball had passed through the limb, we must 
have our doubts on the subject. The villagers told 
Chuma that after the Banyamwezi engagements they 
constantly treated bad gunshot-wounds in this way 
with perfect success. 

Leaving N'kossu's they rested one night at another 
village belonging to him, and then made for the terri- 
tory of the Wa Ussi. Here they met with a surly 
welcome, and were told they must pass on. No doubt 
the intelligence that they were carrying their master's 
body had a great deal to do with it, for the news 
seemed to spread with the greatest rapidity in ail 



THEOUGH THE WILDS OF AFEICA. 327 

directions. Three times they camped in the forest, and, 
for a wonder, began to find some dry ground. The 
path lay in the direct line of Chawende's town, parallel 
to the north shore of the lake, and at no great distance 
from it. 

Some time previously a solitary Unyamwesi had 
attached himself to the party at Chitankooi's, where he 
had been left sick by a passing caravan of traders ; this 
man now assured them the country before them was 
well known to him. 

Approaching Chawende's, according to native eti- 
quette, Amoda and Sabouri went on in front to inform 
the chief, and to ask leave to enter his town. As they 
did not come back, Muanuasere and Chuma set oflP after 
them, to ascertain the reason of the delay. No better 
success seemed to attend this second venture ; so, shoul- 
dering their burdens, all went forward in the track of 
the four messengers. 

In the mean time Chuma and Muanuasere met Amoda 
and Sabouri coming back toward them with five men. 
They reported that they had entered the town, but 
found it a very large stockaded place; moreover, two 
other villages of equal size were close to it. Much 
pombe-drinking was going on. On approaching the 
chief, Amoda had rested his gun against the principal 
hut innocently enough. Chawende's son, drunk and 
quarrelsome, made this a cause of offence, and, swagger- 
ing up, he insolently asked them how they dared to do 
such a thing. Chawende interfered, and for the mo- 
ment prevented further trouble; in fact, he himself 
seems to have been inclined to grant the favor which was 
asked ; however, there was danger brewing, and the men 
retired. 



828 Stanley's story; or, 

When the main body met them returning, tired with 
tneir fruitless errand, a consuhation took place. Wood 
there was none. To scatter about and find materials 
with which to build shelter for the night would only 
offer a great temptation to these drunken, excited people 
to plunder the baggage. It was resolved to make for 
the town. 

When they reached the gate of the stockade they were 
flatly refused admittance, those inside telling them to 
go down to the river and camp on the bank. They 
replied that this was impossible ; that they were tired, 
it was very late, and nothing could be found there to 
give them shelter. Meeting with no different answer, 
Safene said, " Why stand talking to them ? let us get 
in somehow or other ;" and, suiting the action to the 
word, they pushed the men back who stood in the gate- 
way. Safene got through, and Muanuasere climbed 
over the top of the stockade, followed by Chum a, who 
instantly opened the gate wide and let his companions 
through. Hostilities might still have been averted had 
better counsel prevailed. 

The men began to look about for huts in which to 
deposit their things, when the same drunken fellow 
drew a bow and fired at Muanuasere. The man called 
out to the others to seize him, which was done in an 
instant. A loud cry now burst forth that the chiefs 
son was in danger, and one of the people hurling a 
spear, wounded Sabouri slightly in the thigh* this was 
the signal for a general scrimmage. 

Chawende's men fled from the town ; the drums beat 
the assembly in all directions, and an immense number 
flocked to the spot from the two neighboring villages, 



THEOUGPI THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 329 

armed with their bows, arrows, and spears. An assault 
instantly began from the outside. N'chise was shot with 
an arrow in the shoulder through the palisade, and 
N'taru in the finger. Things were becoming desperate. 
Putting the body of Dr. Livingstone and all their goods 
and chattels in one hut, they charged out of the town, 
and fired on the assailants, killing two and wounding 
seyeral others. Fearing that they would only gather to- 
gether in the other remaining villages and renew the at- 
tack at night, the men carried these quickly one by one, 
and subsequently burned six others, which were built on 
the same side of the river ; then crossing over, they fired 
on the canoes which were speeding toward the deep water 
of Bangweolo, through the channel of the Lopopussi, 
with disastrous results to the fugitive people. 

Keturning to the town, all was made safe for the 
night. By the fortunes of war, sheep, goats, fowls, and 
an immense quantity of food fell into their hands, and 
they remained for a week to recruit. Once or twice 
they found men approaching at night to throw fire on 
the roofs of the huts from outside; but, with this excep- 
tion, they were not interfered with. On the last day 
but one, a man approached and called to them, at the 
top of his voice, not to set fire to the chief's town (it 
was his that they occupied) ; for the bad son had 
brought all this upon them ; he added that the old man 
had been overruled, and they were sorry enough for his 
bad conduct. 

Listening to the account given of this occurrence, 
one cannot but lament the loss of life, and the whole 
circumstances of the fight. While, on the one hand, 
we may imagine that the loss of a cool, conciliatory, 



330 Stanley's stoey; or, 

brave leader was here felt in a grave degree, we must 
also see that it was known far and wide that this very 
loss was now a great weakness to his followers. There 
is no surer sign of mischief in Africa than these trump- 
ery charges of bewitching houses by placing things on 
them; some such overstrained accusation is generally 
set in the front rank when other difficulties are to 
come; drunkenness is pretty much the same thing in 
all parts of the world, and gathers misery around it as 
easily in an African village as in an English city. Had 
the cortege submitted to extortion and insult, they felt 
that their night by the river would have been a preca- 
rious one, even if they had been in a humor to sleep in 
a swamp when a town was at hand. These things gave 
occasion to them to resort to force. The desperate nature 
of their whole enterprise in starting for Zanzibar per- 
haps had accumulated its own stock of determination, 
and now it found vent under evil provocation. If there 
is room for any other feeling than regret, it lies in the 
fact that, on mature consideration and in sober moments, 
the people who suffered cast the real blame on the right 
shoulders. 

For the next three days after leaving Chawende's, 
they were still in the same inundated fringe of bouga 
which surrounds the Lake, and on each occasion had to 
camp at night-fall wherever a resting place could be 
found in the jungle, reaching Chama's village on the 
fourth day. A delay of forty-eight hours was necessary, 
as Susi's wife fell ill ; and for the next few marches she 
was carried in a kitanda. They met an Unyamwezi 
man here, who had come from Kumba-kumba's town 
i^ the Wa Ussi district. He related to them bow on 



THBOUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 331 

two occasions the Wanyamwezi had tried to carry Cha- 
wende's town by assault, but had been repulsed both 
times. It would seem that, with the strong footing 
these invaders have in the country, armed as they are 
besides with the much-dreaded guns, it can only bq a 
matter of time before the whole rule, such as it is, passest 
into the hands of the new-comers. 

The next night was spent in the open air, before com" 
ing to the scattered huts of Ngumbn's, where a motley 
group of stragglers, for the most part Wabisa, were 
busy felling the trees and clearing the land for cultiva- 
tion. However, the little community gave them a wel- 
come, in spite of the wide-spread report of the fighting 
at Chawende's and dancing and drumming were Jiept 
up till morning. 

One more night was passed in the plain, and they 
reached a tributary of the Lopopussi River, called the 
M'Pamba ; it is a considerable stream, and takes one up 
to the chest in crossing. They now drew near to Chi- 
waie's town, which they describe as a very strong place, 
fortified with a stockade and ditch. Shortly before 
reaching it some villagers tried to pick a quarrel with 
them for carrying flags. It was their invariable custom 
to make the drummer-boy, Majwara, march at their 
head, while the union-jack and the red colors of Zanzi- 
bar were carried in a foremost place in the line. For- 
tunately a chief of some importance came up and stopj)ed 
the discussion, or there might have been more mischief^ 
for the men were in no temper to lower their flag, know- 
ing their own strength pretty well by this time. Making 
their settlement close to Chiwaie's, they met with much 
kindness, and were visited by crowds of the inhabitants. 



332 Stanley's story; or, 

Three days' journey brought them to Chiwaie's uncle's 
village ; sleeping two nights in the jungle, they made 
Chungu's, and in another day's march found themselves, 
to their great delight, at Kapesha's. They knew their 
road from this point, for on the southern route with Dr. 
Livingstone they had stopped here, and could therefore 
take up the path that leads to Tanganyika. Hitherto 
their course had been easterly, with a little northing ; 
but now they turned their backs to the lake, which they 
had held on the right hand since crossing the Luapula, 
and struck almost north. 

From Kapesha's to Lake Bangweolo is a three days' 
march, as the crow flies, for a man carrying a burden. 
They saw a large quantity of iron and copper wire being 
made here by a party of Unyamwezi. The process is 
as follows : A heavy piece of iron, wdth a funnel-shaped 
hole in it, is firmly fixed in the fork of a tree. A fine 
rod is then thrust into it, and a line attached to the first 
few inches which can be coaxed through. A number 
of men haul on this line, singing and dancing in tune, 
and thus it is drawn through the first drill ; it is sub- 
sequently passed through others to render it still finer, 
and excellent wire is the result. Leaving Kapesha, 
they went through many of the villages already enu- 
merated in Dr. Livingstone's diary. Chama's people 
came to see them as they passed by him, and, after some 
mutterings and growlings, Kasonga gave them leave to 
buy food at his town. Reaching Chama's headquarters, 
they camped outside, and received a civil message, tell- 
ing them to convey his orders to the people on the 
banks of the Kalongwese, that the travelers must be 
ferried safely across. They found great fear and misery 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFIIICA. 33o 

prevailing in tlie neigliborliood, from the constant raid& 
made by Kumba-kumba's men. 

Leaving the Kalongwese behind them, they made for 
M'sama's son's town, meeting four men on the way who 
were going from Kumba-kumba to Chama to beat up 
recruits for an attack on the Katanga people. The 
request was sure to be met with alarm and refusal, but 
it served very well to act the part taken by the wolf in 
the fable. A grievance would immediately be made of 
it, and Chama " eaten up" in due course for daring to 
gainsay the stronger man. Such is too frequently the 
course of native oppression. At last Kumba-kumba's 
town came in sight. Already the large district of Itawa 
has tacitly allowed itself to be put under the harrow by 
this ruffianly Zanzibar Arab. Black-mail is levied in 
all directions, and the petty chiefs, although really 
under tribute to Nsama, are sagacious enough to keep 
in with the powers that be. Kumba-kumba showed the 
men a storehouse full of elephants' tusks. A small de- 
tachment was sent off to try and gain tidings of one of 
the Nassick boys, who had mysteriously disappeared a 
day or two previously on the march. At the time no 
great apprehensions were felt, but as he did not turn up, 
the grass was set on fire in order that he might see the 
smoke if he had wandered, and guns were fired. Some 
think he purposely went off rather than carry a load 
any further ; while others fear he may have been killed. 
Certain it is that after a five days' search in all direc- 
tions no tidings could be gained either here or at 
Chama's, and nothing more was heard of him. 

Numbers of slaves were collected here. On one occa- 
sion the}^ saw five gangs bound neck to neck by chains, 
and working in the gardens outside the towns. 



334 Stanley's story; oe, 

The talk was still about the break-up of Casembe's 
powerj for it will be recollected that Kumba-kumba and 
Pemba-motu had killed him a short time before; but 
by far the most interesting news that reached them was 
that a party of Englishmen, headed by Dr. Living- 
stone's son, on their way to relieve his father, had been 
seen at Bagamoio some months previously. 

The chief showed them every kindness during their 
five days' rest, and was most anxious that no mishap 
should by any chan'^e occur to their principal charge. 
He warned them to beware of hyenas, at night more 
especially, as the quarter in which they had camped 
had no stockade around it as yet. 

Marching was now much easier, and the men quickly 
found they had crossed the water-shed. The Lovu ran 
in front of them on its way to Tanganyika. The Ka- 
longwese, we have seen, flows to Lake Moero in the 
opposite direction. More to their purpose it was, per- 
haps, to find the terror of Kumba-kumba dying away 
as they traveled in a northeasterly direction, and came 
among the Mwambi. As yet no invasion had taken 
place. A young chief, Chungu, did all he could for 
them, for when the Doctor explored these regions 
before, Chungu had been much impressed with him ; 
and now, throwing off all the native superstition, he 
looked on the arrival of the dead body as a cause of 
real sorrow. 

Asoumani had some luck in hunting, and a fine 
buffalo was killed near the town. According to native 
game laws (which in some respects are exceedingly strict 
in Africa), Chungu had a right to a fore-leg — had it 
been an elephant, the tusk next the ground would hav 



THEOtJGtt THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 335 

been his, past all doubt — in this instance, however, the 
men sent in a plea that theirs was no ordinary case, and 
that hunger had laws of its own; they begged to be 
allowed to keep the whole carcass, and Chungu not only 
listened to their story, but willingly waived his claim 
to the chief's share. 

It is to be hoped that these sons of Tafuna, the head 
and father of the Amambwi a lungu, may hold their 
own. They seem a superior race, and this man is de- 
scribed as a worthy leader. His brothers, Kasonso, 
Ghitimbwa, Sombe, and their sister Mombo, are all no- 
torious for their reverence for Tafuna. In their villages 
an abundance of colored homespun cloth speaks for their 
industry ; while from the numbers of dogs and elephant- 
spears no further testimony is needed to show that the 
character they bear as great hunters is well deserved. 

The steep descent to the lake now lay before them, 
and they came to Kasakalawe's. Here it was that the 
Doctor had passed weary months of illness on his 
first approach to Tanganyika in previous years. The 
village contained but few of its old inhabitants, but 
those few received them hospitably enough, and mourned 
the loss of him who had been so well appreciated when 
alive. So they journeyed on day by day till the south- 
ern end of the lake was rounded. 

The previous experience of the difficult route along 
the heights bordering on Tanganyika made them deter- 
mine to give the lake a wide berth this time, and for 
this purpose they held well to the eastward, passing a 
number of small deserted villages, in one of which they 
camped nearly every night. It was necessary to go 
through the Fipa country, but they learned fi:-om one 



336 StANtEY^S STOKY; O^, 

man and another that the chief, Kafoofi, was very 
anxious that the body should not be brought near to 
his town ; indeed, a guide was purposely thrown m 
their way who led them past by a considerable detour. 
Kafoofi stands well with the coast Arabs. One, Ngom- 
besassi by name, was at the time living with him, ac- 
companied by his retinue of slaves. He had collected 
a very large quantity of ivory further in the interior, 
but dared not approach nearer at present to Unyany- 
embe with it, to risk the chance of meeting one of Mi- 
rambo's hordes. 

This road across the plains seems incomparably the 
best. No difficulty whatever was experienced, and one 
cannot but lament the toil and weariness which Dr. 
Livingstone endured while holding a course close to 
Tanganyika ; although one must bear in mind that by 
no other means at the time could he complete his survey 
of this great inland sea, or acquaint us with its harbors, 
its bays, and the rivers which find their way into it on 
the east, These are details which will prove of value 
when small vessels come to navigate it in the future. 

The chief feature after leaving this point was a three 
days' march over Lambalamfipa, an abrupt mountain 
range, which crosses the country east and west, and 
attains, it would seem, an altitude of some four thou- 
sand feet. Looking down on the plain from its highest 
passes a vast lake appears to stretch away in front 
toward the north, but an descending this resolves itself 
into a glittering plain, for the most part covered with 
saline incrustations. The path lay directly across this. 
The difficulties they anticipated had no real existence, 
for small villages were found, and water was not scarce, 



THBOUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 337 

although braclcish. The first demand for toll was made 
ner\r here, but the headman allowed them to pass for 
fourteen strings of beads. Susi says that this plain 
literally swarms with herds of game of all kinds; 
giraffe and zebra were particularly abundant, and lions 
reveled in such good quarters. The settlements they 
came to belonged chiefly to elephant hunters. Farijala 
aiid Muanuasere did well with the buffalo, and plenty 
of beef came into camp. 

They gained some particulars concerning a salt-water 
lake on their right, at no very considerable distance. 
It was reported to them to be smaller than Tanganyika, 
and goes by the name Bahari ya Muarooli — the sea of 
Muarooli — for such is the name of the paramount chief 
who lives on its shore, and, if we mistake not, the very 
Merere, or his successor, about whom Dr. Livingstone 
from time to time showed such interest. They now ap- 
proached the Likwa River, which flows to this inland 
sea ; they describe it as a stream running breast-high, 
with brackish water ; little satisfaction was got by drink- 
ing from it. 

Just as they came to the Likwa, a long string of men 
was seen on the opposite side filing down to the water, 
and being uncertain of their intentions, precautions were 
quickly taken to insure the safety of the baggage. Di- 
viding themselves into three parties, the first detach- 
ment went across to meet the strangers, carrying the 
Arab flag in front. Chuma headed another band at a 
little distance in the rear of these, while Susi and a few 
more crouched in the jungle, with the body concealed in 
a roughly-made hut. Their fears, however, were need- 
less ; it turned out to be a caravan bound for Fipa to 



338 STANLEY^S STOEY ; OB, 

hunt elephants and buy ivory and slates. The new 
arrivals told them that they had come straight through 
Unyanyembe from Bagamoio, on the coast, and that the 




Hippopotamus in His Lair. 

Doctor's death had already been reported there by 
natives of Fipa. 

With no small satisfaction the men learned from the 
outwardbound caravan that the previous story was a 



THEOUGH THE WILDS OF AFEICA. 339 

true one, and they were assured that Dr. Livingstone's 
son, with two Englishmen and a quantity of goods, had 
already reached Unyanyembe. 

The country here showed all the appearance of a salt- 
pan ; indeed, a quantity of very good salt was collected 
by one of the men, who thought he could turn an honest 
bunch of beads with it at Unyanyembe. 

Petty tolls were levied on them. Kampama's deputy 
required four dotis, and an additional tax of six was 
paid to the chief of the Kanongo when his town was 
reached. 

The Lungwa River bowls away here toward Tangan- 
yika. It is a quick, tumbling stream, leaping among 
the rocks and boulders, and in its deeper pools it affords 
cool delight to schools of hippopotami. The men, who 
had hardly tasted good water since crossing Lambalam- 
fipa, are loud in its praise. Muanuasere improved rela^ 
tions with the people at the next town by opportunely 
killing another buffalo, and all took a three days' rest. 
Yet another caravan met them, bound likewise for the 
interior, and adding further particulars about the Eng- 
lishmen at Unyanyembe. This quickened the pace 
till they found at one stage they were melting two days 
of the previous outward journey into one. 

Arriving at Baula, Jacob Wainwright, the scribe of 
the party, was commissioned to write an account of the 
distressing circumstances of the Doctor's death, and 
Chuma, taking three men with him, pressed on to de- 
liver it to the English party in person. The rest of the 
cortege followed them through the jungle to Chilunda'a 
village. On the outskirts they came across a number of 
Wagogo hunting elephants with dogs and spears ; but 



340 



STANLEY S STOEY ; OK, 



although they were well treated by them, and received 
presents of honey and food, they thought it better to 
keep these men in ignorance of the charge. 

The Manyara River was crossed, on its way to Tan- 
ganyika, before they got to Chikooloo. Leaving this 
village behind them, they advanced to the Ugunda dis- 
trict, now ruled by Kalimangombi, the son of Mbereke, 




The African Elephant, 

the former chief, and so on to Kasekera, which, it will 
be remembered, is not far from Unyanyembe. 

20th October, 1873. — We will here run on ahead with 
Chuma on his way to communicate with the new ar- 
rivals. He reached the Arab settlement without let or 
hinderance. Lieutenant Cameron was quickly put in 
possession of the main facts of Dr. Livingstone's death 
by reading Jacob's letter, and Chuma was questioned 



THEOUGH THE WILDS OF AFKICA. 341 

concerning it in the presence of Dr. Dillon and Lieu- 
tenant Murphy. It was a disappointment to find that 
the reported arrival of Mr. Oswell Livingstone was en- 
tirely erroneous ; but Lieutenant Cameron showed the 
wayworn men every kindness. Chuma rested one day 
before setting out to relieve his comrades, to whom he 
had arranged to make his way as soon as possible. 
Lieutenant Cameron expressed a fear that it would not 
be safe for him to carry the cloth he was willing to fur- 
nish them with, if he had not a stronger convoy, as he 
himself had suffered too sorely from terrified bearers on 
his way thither ; but the young fellows were pretty well 
acquainted with native marauders by this time, and set 
off without apprehension. 

And now the greater part of their task is over. The 
weather-beaten company wind their way into the old 
well-known settlement of Kwihara. A host of Arabs 
and their attendant slaves meet them, as they sorrow- 
fully take their charge to the same tembe in which the 
"weary waiting" was endured before, and then thej 
submit to the systematic questioning which the native 
traveler is so well able to sustain. 

News in abundance was offered in return. The porters 
of the Livingstone East Coast Aid Expedition had plenty 
to relate to the porters sent by Mr. Stanley. Mirambo's 
war dragged on its length, and matters had changed 
very little since they were there before, either for better 
or for worse. They found the English ofiicers extremely 
short of goods ; but Lieutenant Cameron, no doubt 
with the object of his expedition full in view, very pro- 
perly felt it a first duty to relieve the wants of the party 
that had performed this herculean feat of bringing the 



342 Stanley's story; oe, 

body of the traveler he had been sent to relieve, to- 
gether with every article belonging to him at the time 
of his death, as far as this main road to the coast. 

In talking to the men about their intentions, Lieu- 
tenant Cameron had serious doubts whether the risk of 
taking the body of Dr. Livingstone through the Ugogo 
country ought to be run. It very naturally occurred 
to him that Dr. Livingstone might have felt a wish 
during life to be buried in the same land in which the 
remains of his wife lay — it will be remembered that the 
grave of Mrs. Livingstone is at Shupanga, on the Zam- 
besi. All this was put before the men ; but they stea- 
dily adhered to their first conviction, that it was right, 
at all risks, to attempt to bear their master home, and 
therefore they were no longer urged to bury him at 
Kwihara. 

To the new-comers it was of great interest to examine 
the boxes which the men had conveyed from Bangweolo. 
As we have seen, they had carefully packed up every- 
thing at Chitambo's — books, instruments, clothes, and 
all which would bear special interest in time to come, 
from having been associated with Livingstone in his 
last hours. 

It cannot be conceded for a moment that these poor 
fellows would have been right in forbidding this exami- 
nation, when we consider the relative position in which 
natives and English ofiicers must always stand to each 
other; but it is a source of regret to relate that the 
chief part of Livingstone's instruments were taken out 
of the packages and appropriated for future purposes. 
The instruments with which all his observations had 
been made throughout a series of discoveries extending 



THKOUGH THE WILDS OF AFEICA. 343 

over seven years — aneroid barometers, compasses, ther- 
mometers, the sextant, and other things — have gone on 
a new series of travels, to incur innumerable risks of loss, 
while one only of his thermometers comes to hand. 

We could well have wished these instruments safe in 
England with the small remnant o^ Livingstone's per- 
sonal property, which was allowed to be shipped from 
Zanzibar. 

The Doctor had deposited four bales of cloth as a 
reserve stock with the Arabs, and these were imme- 
diately forthcoming for the march down. 

Lieutenant Cameron gave the men to understand 
that it was agreed Lieutenant Murphy should return to 
Zanzibar, and asked that if they could attach his party 
to their march ; if so, the men who acted as carriers 
should receive six dollars a man for their services. This 
was agreed to. Susi had arranged that they should 
avoid the main path of the Wagogo; inasmuch as, if 
difficulty was to be encountered anywhere, it would 
arise among these lawless, pugnacious people. 

By making a ten days' detour at " Jua Singa," and 
traveling by a path well known to one of their party, 
through the jungle of Poli ya vengi, they hoped to 
keep out of harm's way, and to be able to make the 
cloth hold out with which they were supplied. At 
length the start was effected, and Dr. Dillon likewise 
(juitted the expedition, to return to the coast. It was 
necessary to stop, after the first day's march, for a long 
lialt ; for one of the women was unable to travel, they 
found, and progress was delayed 'till she could resume 
the journey. There seem to have been some serious 
misunderstanding between the leaders of Dr. Living- 



344 Stanley's stoey; ok, 

stone's party and Lieutenant Murpliy soon ^fter setting 
out, which turned mainly on the subject of beginning 
of the day's march. The former, trained in the old 
discipline of their master, laid stress on the necessity of 
very early rising, to avoid the heat of the day, and per- 
haps pointed out more bluntly than pleasantly, that if 
the Englishmen wanted to improve their health, they 
had better do so too. However, to a certain extent, 
difficulty was avoided by the two companies pleasing 
themselves. 

Making an early start, the body was carried to Kase- 
kera by Susi's party, where, from an evident disinclina- 
tion to receive it into the village, an encampment was 
made outside. A consultation now became necessary. 
There was no disguising the fact that if they kept along 
the main road intelligence would precede them concern- 
ing that in which they were engaged, stirring up certain 
hostility, and jeopardizing the most precious charge they 
had. A plan was quickly hit upon. Unobserved, the 
men removed the corpse of the deceased explorer from 
the package in which it had hitherto been conveyed, 
and buried the bark case in the hut in the thicket 
around the village in which they had placed it. The 
object now was to throw the villagers off their guard, 
by making believe that they had relinquished the at- 
tempt to carry the body to Zanzibar. They feigned 
that they had abandoned their task, having changed 
their minds, and that it must be sent back to Unyan- 
yembe, to be buried there. In the mean time the corpse 
of necessity had to be concealed in the .smallest space 
possible, if they were actually to convey it secretly for 
the future ; this was quickly managed. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 345 

Susi and Chuma went into the Y/ood and stripped off 
a fresh length of bark from an n'gombe-tree ; in this 
the remains conveniently prepared as to length, were 
placed, the whole being surrounded with calico in such 
a manner as to appear like an ordinary traveling bale, 
which was then deposited with the rest of the goods. 
They next proceeded to gather a fagot of mapira-stalks, 
cutting them in lengths of six feet or ro, and swathing 
them round with cloth, to imitate a dead body about to 
be buried. This done, a paper, folded as to represent a 
letter, was duly placed in a cleft stick, according to the 
native letter-carrier's custom, and six trustworthy men 
were told off ostensibly to go with the corpse to Unyan- 
yembe. With due solemnity the men set out. The 
villagers were only too thankful to see it, and no one 
suspected the ruse. It was near sundown. The bearers 
of the package held on their way till fairly beyond all 
chance of detection, and then began to dispose of their 
load. The mapira-sticks were thrown, one by one, far 
away into the jungle, and when all were disposed of, 
the wrappings were cunningly got rid of in the same 
way. Going further on, first one man, and then another 
sprung clear from the path into the long grass, to leave 
no trace of footsteps, and the whole party returned by 
different ways to their companions, who had been anx- 
iously awaiting them during the night. No one could 
detect the real nature of the ordinary-looking bale, 
which henceforth was guarded with no relaxed vigilance, 
and eventually disclosed the bark coffin and wrappings 
containing Dr. Livingstone's body, on the arrival at 
"Sagamoio. And now, devoid of fear, the people of 
Kasekera asked them all to come and take up theii 



346 Stanley's stoey ; oe, 

quarters in the town — a privilege which was denied 
them so long as it was known that they had the remains 
of the dead with them. 

But a dreadful event was about to recall to their 
minds how many fall victims to African disease. 

Dr. Dillon now came on to Kasekera, suffering much 
from dysentery ; a few hours more, and he shot himself 
in his tent with a rifle. The malaria imbibed during 
their stay at Unyanyembe laid upon him the severest 
form of fever, accompanied by delirum, under which he 
at length succumbed in one of its violent paroxysms. 
His remains are interred at Kasekera. 

We must follow Susi's troop through a not altogether 
eventless journey to the sea. Some days afterward, as 
they wended their way through a rocky place, a little 
girl in their train, named Losi, met her death in a 
shocking way. It appears that the poor child was car- 
rying a water-jar on her head in the file of people, 
when an enormous snake dashed across the path, de- 
liberately struck her in the thigh, and made for a hole 
in the jungle close at hand. This work of a moment 
was sufficient, for the poor girl fell mortally wounded. 
She was carried forward, and all means at hand were 
applied, but in less than ten minutes the last symptom 
(foaming at the mouth) set in, and she ceased to bieathe. 

Here is a well-authenticated instance which goes far 
to prove the truth of an assertion made to travelers in 
many parts of Africa. The natives protest that one 
species of snake will deliberately chase and overtake 
his victim with lightning speed, and so dreadfully dan- 
gerous is it, both from the activity of its poison and its 
vicious propensities, that it is perilous to approach its 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 347 

quarters. Most singular to relate, an Arab came to 
some of the men after their arrival at Zanzibar, and told 
them that he had just come by the Unyanyembe road, 
and that, while passing the identical spot where this 
disaster occurred, one of the men was attacked by the 
same snake, with precisely the same results; in fact, 
when looking for a place in which to bury him they 
saw the grave of Losi, and the two lie side by side. 

This snake was doubtless a mamba ; it is much to be 
desired that specimens should be procured for purposes 
of comparison. In Southern Africa so great is the 
dread it inspires that the Kaffirs will break up a kraal 
and forsake the place, if a mamba takes up his quarters 
in the vicinity, and, from what we have seen above, 
with no undue caution. 

Susi, to whom this snake is known in the Shupanga 
tongue as " bubu," describes it as about twelve feet long, 
dark in color, of a dirty blue under the belly, with red 
markings, like the wattles of a cock, on the head. The 
Arabs go so far as to say that it is known to oppose the 
passage of a caravan at times. Twisting its tail around 
a branch, it will strike one man after another in the 
head with fatal certainty. Their remedy is to fill a pot 
with boiling water, which is put on the head and carried 
under the tree. The snake dashes his head into this, 
and is killed ; the story is given for what it is worth. 

It would seem that at Ujiji the natives, as in other 
places, can not bear to have snakes killed. " chatu,^^ a 
species of python, is common, and, from being highly 
favored, becomes so tame as to enter houses at night. 
A little meal is placed on the stool, which the uncanny 
visitor laps up, and then takes its departure ; the men 



848 Stanley's stoey; or, 

significantly say they never saw it with their own eyefe. 
Another species utters a cry, much like the crowing of 
a young cock ; this is well authenticated. Yet another 
black variety has a spine like a black -thorn at the end 
of the tail, and its bite is extremely deadly. 

At the same time it must be added that, considering 
the enormous number of reptiles in Africa, it rarely oc- 
curs that any one is bitten, and a few months' residence 
suffices to dispel the dread which most travelers feel at 
the outset. 

February, 1874. — No further incident occurred worthy 
of special notice. At last the coast-town of Bagamoio 
came in sight, and before many hours were over, a Eritish 
cruiser conveyed the acting consul. Captain Prideaux, 
from Zanzibar to the spot which the cortege had reached. 
Arrangements were quickly made for transporting the 
remains of Dr. Livingstone to the island, some thirty 
miles distant, and then it became perhaps rather too 
painfully plain to the men that their task was finished. 

One word on a subject which will commend itself to 
most before we close this eventful history. 

We saw what a train of Indian sepoys, Johanna men, 
Nassick boys, and Shupanga canoe-men accompanied 
Dr. Livingstone when he started from Zanzibar in 1866 
to enter upon his last discoveries ; of all these, five only 
could answer to the roll-call as they handed over the 
dead body of their leader to his countrymen on the shore 
whither they had returned, and this after eight years' 
desperate service. 

Once more we repeat the names of these men. Susi 
and James Chuma have been sufficiently prominent 
throughout — hardly so, perhaps, has Amoda, their com 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 349 

rade ever since the Zambesi days of 1864 ; then we have 
Abram and Mabruki, each with service to show from 
the time he left the Nassick College with the Doctor in 
1865. Nor must we forget Ntoaeka and Halima, the 
two native girls of whom we have heard such a good 
character ; they cast in their lot with the wanderers in 
Manyuema. It does seem strange to hear the men say 
that no sooner did they arrive at their journey's end 
than they were so far frowned out of notice, that not so 
much as a passage to the island was offered them when 
their burden was borne away. We must hope that it is 
not too late — even for the sake of consistency — to put it 
on record that whoever assisted Livingstone, whether 
white or black, has not been overlooked. Surely those 
with whom he spent his last years must not pass away 
into Africa again unrewarded, and be lost to sight. 

Yes, a very great deal is owing to these five men, and 
we say it emphatically. If the world has had gratified 
a reasonable wish in learning all that concerns the last 
days on earth of a truly noble man and his wonderful 
enterprise, the means of doing so could never have been 
placed at our disposal but for the ready willingness 
which made Susi and Chuma determine, if possible, to 
render an account to some of those whom they had 
known as their master's old companions. If the geo- 
grapher finds before him new facts, new discoveries, new 
theories, as Livingstone alone could record them, it is 
right and proper that he should feel the part these men 
have played in furnishing him with such valuable mat- 
ter. For we repeat that nothing but such leadership 
and staunchness as that which organized the march home 
from Ilala, and distinguished it throughout, could have 

27 



350 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



broagiit Livingstone's bones to England, or his last 
notes and maps to the outer world. To none does the 
feat seem so marvelous as to those who know Africa, and 
the difficulties which must have beset both the first and 
the last in the enterprise. Thus in his death, not less 
than in his life, David Livingstone bore testimony to 
that good-will and kindliness which exists in the heart 
o£ the African. 




^■fjH 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN EXPEDITION. 

Henry M. Stanley's New Mission — The Unfinished Task of Livingstone — The 
Commission of Mr. Stanley by the " Daily Telegraph " of London and the 
New York " Herald " to Command the New Expedition to Central Africa^ — 
Mr. Stanley's Arrival at Zanzibar — Fitting Out his Expedition and Enlistiag 
Many of his Old Captains and Chiefs — Sets Sail for the West Coast of the Zan- 
zibar Sea and Towards the Dark Continent — Arrival at Bagamoyo — Completes 
his Forces and Takes Up his Line of March Inland — Incidents Attending his 
March to Mpwapwa. 

In April, 1874, while on his return from the Ashantee 
war, Mr. Stanley first received the news of the death 
of Dr. Livingstone, and that his body was then on its 
way to England. 

Mr. Stanley says " The effect which this news had 
upon me, after the first shock had passed away, was to 
fire me with a resolution to complete his work — to be, 
if God willed it, the next martyr to geographical 
science; or if my life was to be spared, to clear up not 
only the secrets of the great river throughout its 
course, but also all that remained still problematic and 
incomplete of the discoveries of Burton and Speke, 
and Speke and Grant. 

"The solemn day of the burial of my great friend 
arrived. I was one of the pall-bearers in Westmin- 
ster Abbey, and when I had seen the coffin lowered 

351 



352 STANLEY*S StORY ; OR, 

into the grave, and had heard the first handful of earth 
thrown over it, I walked away sorrowing over the fate 
of David Livingstone." 

From this time forward Mr. Stanley devoted his 
time assiduously in completing his literary labors and 
at the same time in studying up Africa, its geography, 
geology, botany and ethnology. He knew what had 
been accomplished by African explorers, and knew 
how much of the dark interior was still unknown to 
the world. Until late hours he sat, inventing and 
planning, sketching routes, laying out lengthy lines of 
possible exploration and noting many suggestions 
which the continued study of the subject created. 

One day, while on a visit to the office of the '* Daily 
Telegraph," the subject of Livingstone and his unfin- 
ished work was broached, and after a brief talk on the 
subject between himself and the editor, Mr. Stanley 
was asked : — 

" Could you, and would you, complete the work ? 
And what is there to do ?" 

Mr. Stanley replied: "The outlet of Lake Tangan- 
yika is undiscovered. We know nothing scarcely — ex- 
cept what Speke has sketched out — of Lake Victoria; 
we do not even know whether it consists of one or 
many lakes, and therefore the sources of the Nile are 
still unknown. Moreover, the western half of the 
African continent is still a white blank." 

" Do you think you can settle all this, if we commis- 
sion you ?" asked the editor of the *' Telegraph." 

"While I live, there will be something done. If I 
survive the time required to perform all the work, all 
shall be done." 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 353 

The matter was for the moment suspended, how- 
ever, because Mr. Bennett, of the New York "Herald/* 
had prior claims on Mr. Stanley's services. 

A telegram was despatched to Mr. Bennett: "Would 
he join the ' Daily Telegraph ' in sending Stanley out 
to Africa, to complete the discoveries of Speke, Bur- 
ton, and Livingstone ?" To which Mr. Bennett repHed 
within twenty-four hours by the laconic answer : " Yes. 
Bennett." 

The new mission of Mr. Stanley was defined by 
the "Telegraph" through its columns "to be the com- 
pletion of the work left unfinished by the lamented 
death of Dr. Livingstone ; to solve, if possible, the 
remaining problems of the geography of Central 
Africa; and to investigate and report upon the haunts 
of the slave-trader." .... " He will represent the 
two nations whose common interest in the regenera- 
tion of Africa was so well illustrated when the lost 
English explorer was re-discovered by the energetic 
American correspondent. In that memorable jour- 
ney Mr. Stanley displayed the best qualities of an 
African traveller; and with no inconsiderable re- 
sources at his disposal to reinforce his own complete 
acquaintance with the conditions of African travel, it 
may be hoped that very important results will accrue 
from this undertaking to the advantage of science, 
humanity, and civilization." 

On August 15, 1874, Mr. Stanley sailed from 
England for Zanzibar, where he arrived on the 21st 
day of September — just twenty-eight months after 
he had left there on his return from the search of 
Livingstone. 



354 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

For many days after his arrival he was busily en- 
gaged in selecting the members of his new expedition 
and those who were to act as carriers and soldiers. 
Among those selected, he gave preference to such as 
had been with him on the Search Expedition, and had 
been despatched to the assistance of Livingstone in 
1872. Out of these the chiefs were selected. And 
to these the customary presents had to be distributed. 
Ulimengo, or the " World, " the incorrigible joker 
and hunter in chief of the Search and Livingstone^s 
expeditions, was given a gold ring to encircle one of 
his thick black fingers, and a silver chain to suspend 
round his neck, which caused his mouth to expand 
gratefully. Rojab, who was soon reminded of the un- 
lucky accident with Livingstone's Journal in the muddy 
waters of the Mukondokwa, was endowed with a 
munificent gift which won him over to Mr. Stanley's 
service beyond fear of bribery. Manwa Sera, the 
redoubtable ambassador of Speke and Grant to Man- 
wa Sera — the royal fugitive distressed by the hot pur- 
suit of the Arabs — the leader of his second caravan 
in 1 87 1, the chief of the party sent to Unyanyembe 
to the assistance of Livingstone in 1872, and now ap- 
pointed Chief Captain of the Anglo-American Expe- 
dition, was rendered temporarily speechless with 
gratitude because a splendid necklace had been sus- 
pended from his neck and a heavy seal ring placed 
upon one of his fingers. And thus Mr. Stanley pro- 
ceeded to endow each one of his old followers with 
some suitable gift of such a character as would both 
please them and strengthen their attachment towards 
himself. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 355 

Mr. Stanley, in speaking of the usual preliminary 
deliberative palaver, or, as the Wangwana call it, 
" Shauri," held before the final execution of all great 
enterprises, says : — 

" The chiefs arranged themselves in a semicircle 
on the day of the Shauri, and I sat d la Turque front- 
ing them. ' What is it, my friends ? Speak your 
minds.' They hemmed and hawed, looked at one 
another, as if on their neighbors' faces they might dis- 
cover the purport of 'their coming; but, all hesitating 
to begin, finally broke down in a loud laugh. 

" Manwa Sera, always grave, unless hit dextrously 
with a joke, hereupon affected anger, and said, ' You 
speak, son of Safeni. Verily, we act like children ! 
Will the master eat us ?* 

"Wadi, son of Safeni, thus encouraged to perform 
the spokesman's duty, hesitates exactly two seconds, 
and then ventures with diplomatic blandness and 
graciosity: *We have come, master, with words. 
Listen. It is well we should know every step before 
we leap. A traveller journeys not without knowing 
whither he wanders. We have come to ascertain 
what lands you are bound for !' 

" Imitating the son of Safeni's gracious blandness, 
and his low tone of voice, as though the information 
about to be imparted to the intensely interested and 
eagerly listening group were too important to speak 
it loud, I described in brief outlines the prospective 
journey in broken Kiswahili. As country after coun- 
try was mentioned of which they had hitherto but 
vague ideas, and river after river, lake after lake 
named, all of which I hoped with their trusty aid to 



356 Stanley's story; or, 

explore carefully, various ejaculations expressive of 
wonder and joy, mixed with a little alarm, broke from 
their lips; but when I concluded, each of the group 
drew a long breath, and almost simultaneously they 
uttered admiringly, *Ah, fellows, this is a journey 
worthy to be called a journey !' " 

By 5 o'clock P. M. of the 12th of November, 224 
men had responded to their names, and five of the 
Arab vessels, laden with the personnel, cattle, and ma- 
terial of the expedition, were impatiently waiting, with 
anchor heaved short, the word of command. One 
vessel still lay close ashore, to convey Mr. Stanley and 
Frederick Barker — in charge of the personal ser- 
vants-— their baggage and the dogs. 

A wave of the hand, and the anchors were hove up. 
With sails set they bore away westward to launch 
themselves into the arms of fortune. In the words of 
Mr. Stanley : *'The parting is over ! We have said our 
last words for years, perhaps forever, to kindly men ! 
The sun sinks fast to the western horizon, and gloomy 
is the twilight that now deepens and darkens. Thick 
shadows fall upon the distant land and over the silent 
sea, and oppress our throbbing, regretful hearts as we 
glide away through the dying light towards the Dark 
Continent.'' 

On the 13th of November, Stanley reached Baga- 
moyo, situated on the mainland near the sea. On the 
morning of the 1 7th, five days after leaving Zanzibar, 
the expedition filed out from the town in the follow- 
ing order: Four chiefs, a few hundred yards in front; 
next the twelve guides, clad in red robes of Jobo, bearing 
the wire coils ; then a long file 275 strong, bearing cloth^ 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 357 

wire, beads, and sections of the Lady Alice ; after 
them thirty-six women and ten boys, children of some 
of the chiefs and boat-bearers, following their mothers 
and assisting them with trifling loads of utensils, fol- 
lowed by the riding asses, Europeans and gun bearers ; 
the long line closed by sixteen chiefs who act as rear- 
guard and whose duties are to pick up stragglers and 
act as supernumeraries until other men can be pro- 
cured: in all 356 souls connected with the Anglo- 
American Expedition. The lengthy line occupied 
nearly half a mile of the path which is the commercial 
and exploring highway into the lake regions. 

" In this manner," says Stanley " we begin our long 
journey, full of hopes. There is noise and laughter 
along the ranks, and a hum of gay voices murmuring 
through the fields, as we rise and descend with the 
waves of the land and wind the sinuosities of the path. 
Motion had restored us all to a sense of satisfaction. 
We had an intensely bright and fervid sun shining 
above us, the path was dry, hard, and admirably fit for 
travel, and during the commencement of our first 
march nothing could be conceived in better order than 
the lengthy, thin column about to confront the wilder- 
ness." 

Stanley's line of march strikes the valley of the 
Kingani River, and thence to Kikoka, where he makes 
his first halt. Resting the next day, he resumes the 
march on the third day for Rosako. This line is about 
thirty miles north of the most northerly route of any of 
the routes known to Stanley from the writings of other 
explorers. From Rosako he marched to Congorida, 
thence to Mfuteh, and westward of Mfuteh along the 



358 Stanley's story; or, 

southern bank of the WamI some four miles. From 
this point his line diverges to Rubuti, a village on the 
Lugumbwa Creek. " Grand and impressive scenery 
meets the eye as we march to Makubika, the next 
settlement," says Stanley, " where we attain an altitude 
of 2675 f"^^t above the ocean. Peaks and knolls rise 
in all directions, for we are now ascending to the 
eastern front of the Kaguru Mountains. The summits 
of Ukamba are seen to the north, its slopes famous 
for the multitudes of elephants. The mountain char- 
acteristically called the 'Back of the Bow,' has a 
small, clear lake near it, and remarkable peaks or 
mountain crests break the sky-line on every side. In- 
deed, some parts of this great mountain range abound 
in scenery both picturesque and sublime. 

"Between Mamboya and Kitangeh I was much 
struck by the resemblance that many of the scenes 
bear to others that I had seen in the Alleghanies. 
Water is abundant, flowing clear as crystal from nu- 
merous sources. As we neared eastern Kitangeh, 
villages were beheld dotted over every hill, the inhab- 
itants of which, so often frightened by the inroads of 
the ever-marauding Wamasai, have been rendered 
very timid. Here, for the first time, cattle were ob- 
served as we travelled westerly from Bagamoyo. 

" We crossed the plain on the 1 1 th of December, 
and arrived at Tubugwe. It is only six miles wide, 
but within this distance we counted fourteen human 
skulls, the mournful relics of some unfortunate travel- 
lers, slain by an attack of Wahumba, from the north- 
west. I think it is beyond doubt that this plain, 
extending, as it does, from the unexplored northwest, 




A GHASTUY MONUMENT. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



359 



and projecting like a bay into a deep mountain fiord 
southeast of our road, must in former times have been 
an inlet or creek of the great reservoir of which the 
Ugombo Lake, south of here, is a residuum. The bed 
of this ancient lake now forms the pastoral plains of 
the Wahumba and the broad, plain-like expanses 
visible in the Ugogo country." 

From Tubugwe, Stanley directed his march to 
Mpwapwa, on the banks of a small tributary of the 
Mukondokwa, which he reached on the 12th day of 
December, after a twenty-five day's march from Ba- 
gamoyo. 




CHAPTER XIX. 

STANLEY'S ROUTE TO VICTORIA NYANZA. 

Spends Christmas at Zingeh — The Rainy Season Sets In — Famine or Scarcity of 
Food — Half-Rations — Extortionate Chiefs Levy Blackmail — Arrival at Jiweni— 
Through Jungle to Kitalalo— The Plain of Salina— " Not a Drop of Water"— 
Bellicose Natives — Trouble with Many of his Followers — Valuable Services 
Rendered him by Frank and Edward Pocock and Frederick Barker — Frequent 
Quarrels — The Trials of Stanley — Camp at Mtiwi — Terrible Rain Storm, and 
Sad Plight of Stanley and his People — Misled by his Guide, is Lost in a Wild 
of Low Scrub and Brush — Terrible Experiences — Starvation Impending — Sends 
for Relief to Suna in Urimi — The Welcome Meal of Oatmeal — A Singular 
Cooking Utensil — Death of Exiward Pocock — The Weary March from the 
Warimi to Mgongo Tembe — The Beautiful Usiha — Reaches Victoria Nyanza 
February 27th, 1875 — Enters Kagehyi — Receives its Hospitalities — The End 
of a Journey of 720 miles in 103 days. 

The route of Stanley's march from Mpwapwa took 
in Chunyu, Kikombo, Itumbi, Mpamlra's village, Le- 
chumwa, Dudoma, and Zingeh, spending Christmas 
day at the latter place. The rainy season had set in 
and the condition of the explorer and his men was 
aught but agreeable, as appears by a letter written to 
a friend on Christmas day. He says, "It has been 
raining heavily the last two or three days, and an im- 
petuous down-pour of sheet rain has just ceased. On 
the march, rain is very disagreeable ; it makes the 
clayey path slippery, and the loads heavier by being 
saturated, while it half ruins the clothes. It makes 
us dispirited, wet and cold, added to which we are 

360 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 361 

hungry — for there is a famine or scarcity of food at 
this season, and therefore we can only procure half- 
rations." " The natives have but little left. 

I myself have not had a piece of meat for ten days." 

"I weighed 180 pounds when I left Zanzibar, 

but under this diet I have been reduced to 134 pounds 
within thirty-eight days. The young Englishmen are 
In the same impoverished condition of body, and un- 
less we reach some more flourishing country than 
Ugogo, we must soon become mere skeletons. 

" Besides the terribly wet weather and the scarcity 
of food, we are compelled to undergo the tedious and 
wearisome task of haggling with extortionate chiefs 
over the amount of blackmail which they demand and 
which we must pay. We are compelled, as you may 
perceive, to draw heavy drafts on the virtues of pru- 
dence, patience and resignation, without which the 
transit of Ugogo under such conditions as above 
described, would be most perilous." 

The next camp westward of Zingeh was established 
at Jiweni, at an altitude of 3150 feet above sea-level. 
From here through a scrubby jungle to Kitalalo. From 
Kitalalo to the broad and almost level Salina, which 
stretches from Mizanza to the south of the track to 
the hills of Uyangwira, north. The greatest breadth 
of the plain of Salina is twenty miles, and its length 
may be estimated at fifty miles. The march across 
this plain was very fatiguing. Not a drop of water 
was discovered on the route, though towards the latter 
part of the journey a grateful rain-shower fell, which 
revived the caravan, but converted the plain into a 
quagmire. 



362 Stanley's story; or, 

" On approaching the Mukondoku district, " says 
Stanley, "we sighted the always bellicose natives 
advancing upon our van with uplifted spears and noisy 
show of war. This belligerent exhibition did not dis- 
turb our equanimity, as we were strangers and had 
given no cause for hostilities. After manifesting their 
prowess by a few harmless boasts and much frantic 
action, they soon subsided into a more pacific demean- 
or, and permitted us to proceed quietly to our camp 
under a towering baobab near the King's village." 

In speaking, also, of his followers at this time, it 
appears that the explorer experienced considerable 
trouble with some of them. He pays great compli- 
ments for the invaluable services rendered him by 
Frank and Edward Pocock and Frederick Barker in 
endeavoring to harmonize the large, unruly mob, with 
its many eccentricities and unassimilating natures. 

" Quarrels were frequent," he says, " sometimes 
dangerous, between various members of the expedi- 
tion, and at such critical moments only did my personal 
interference become imperatively necessary. What 
with taking solar observations and making ethnological 
notes, negotiating with chiefs about the tribute moneys 
and attending to the sick, my time was occupied from 
morning till night. In addition to all this strain on 
my own physical powers, I was myself frequently sick 
from fever, and wasted from lack of proper, nourishing 
food ; and if the chief of an expedition be thus dis- 
tressed, it may readily be believed that the poor fellows 
depending on him suffer also." 

On the ist of January, 1875, Stanley struck north, 
thus leaving for the first time the path to Unyanyenibe, 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 363 

the common highway of East Central Africa. The 
next halt was made at MtiwI, the chief of which was 
Malewa. " The last night spent at this place was a 
disturbed one," says Stanley ; " the flood-gates of 
heaven seemed literally opened for a period. After 
an hour's rainfall, six inches of water covered our 
camp, and a slow current ran southerly. Every mem- 
ber of the expedition was distressed, and even the 
Europeans, lodged in tents, were not exempt from the 
evils of the night My tent walls enclosed a little 
pool, banked by boxes of stores and ammunition. 
Hearing cries outside, I lit a candle, and my astonish- 
ment was great to find that my bed was an island in a 
shallow river, which, if it increased in depth and cur- 
rent, would assuredly carry me off south towards the 
Rufiji. My walking-boots were miniature barks, float- 
ing to and fro on a turbid tide seeking a place of exit 
to the dark world of waters without. My guns, lashed 
to the centre pole, were stock deep in water. But the 
most comical sight was presented by Jack and Bull, 
perched back to back on the top of an ammunition 
box, butting each other rearward, and snarling and 
growling for that scant portion of comfort. 

" In the morning I discovered my fatigue cap several 
yards outside the tent, and one of my boots down 
south. The harmonium, a present for Mtesa, a large 
quantity of gunpowder, tea, rice and sugar, were de- 
stroyed. Vengeance appeared to have overtaken us. 
At 10 A. M. the sun appeared, astonished, no doubt, 
at a new lake formed during his absence. By noon 
the water had considerably decreased, and permitted 
us to march, and with glad hearts we surmounted the 



364 Stanley's story; or, 

upland of Uyanzi, and from our busy camp, on the af- 
ternoon of January 4th, gazed upon the spacious plain 
beneath, and the vast broad region of sterility and 
thorns which we had known as inhospitable Ugogo." 

On the 6th of January, Stanley reached Kashongwa, 
a village situated on the verge of a trackless wild, 
peopled by a mixture of Wasukuma, renegade Wang- 
wana, and Wanyamwezi. Informed here that he was 
but a two days' march from Urimi, and having yet two 
days' rations, he resumed the march under the guid- 
ance of one of these people, along a route that was 
said would bring him to Urimi the day after. The 
experiences of Stanley and his people during the fol- 
lowing four days can be best conceived from a perusal 
of his own words. 

"The next day we travelled over a plain which had 
a gradual uplift towards the northwest, and was cov- 
ered with dense, low brush. Our path was ill-defined, 
as only small Wagogo caravans traveled to Urimi; but 
the guide assured us that he knew the road. In this 
dense brush there was not one large tree. It formed a 
vast carpet of scrub and brush, tall enough to permit us 
to force our way among the lower branches, which were 
so interwoven one with another that it sickens me 
almost to write of this day's experience. Though our 
march was but ten miles, it occupied us as many hours 
of labor, elbowing and thrusting our way, to the injury 
of our bodies and the detriment of our clothing. 

" We camped at 5 P. M. near another pool, at an alti- 
tude of 4350 feet above the sea. The next day, on the 
afternoon of the 8th, we should have reached Urimi, 
and, in order to be certain of doing so, marched fourteen 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 365 

miles to still another pool at a height of 4550 feet 
above sea-level. Yet still we saw no limit to this 
immense brushfield, and our labors had, this day, been 
increased tenfold. Our guide had lost the path early 
in the day, and was innocently leading us in an easterly 
direction ! 

" The responsibility of leading a half-starved expe- 
dition — -as ours now certainly was — through a dense 
brush, without knowing whither or for how many days, 
was great ; but I was compelled to undertake it rather 
than to see it wander eastward, where it would be 
hopeless to expect provisions. The greater number 
of our people had consumed their rations early in the 
morning. I had led it northward for hours, when we 
came to a large tree to the top of which I requested 
the guide to ascend, to try if he could recognize any 
familiar feature in the dreary landscape. After a 
short examination, he declared he saw a ridge that he 
knew, near which, he said, was situate the village 
of Uveriveri. This news stimulated our exertions, 
and myself leading the van, we travelled briskly until 
5 P. M., when we arrived at the third pool. 

" Meantime Barker and the two Pococks, assisted by 
twenty chiefs, were bringing up the rear, and we never 
suspected for a moment that die broad track which 
we trampled over grass and through brush would 
be unperceived by those in rear of us. The Euro- 
peans and chiefs, assisted by the reports of heavily- 
loaded muskets, were enabled to reach camp success- 
fully at 7 P. M.; but the chiefs then reported that there 
had not arrived a party of four men and a donkey boy 
who was leading an ass loaded with coffee. Of these, 

28 



^66 Stanley's story ; o% 

however there was no fear, as they had detailed the 
chief SImba to oversee them — SImba having a reputa- 
tion among his fellows for fidelity, courage, and 
knowledge of travel. 

" The night passed, and the morning of the 9th 
dawned, and anxiously I asked about the absentees. 
They had not arrived. But as each hour in the jungle 
added to the distress of a still greater number of 
people, we moved on to the miserable village of Uveri- 
veri. The inhabitants consisted of only two families, 
who could not spare us one grain ! We might as well 
have remained in the jungle, for no sustenance could 
be procured here. 

" In this critical position, many lives hanging on my 
decision, I resolved to despatch forty of the strongest 
men — ten chiefs and thirty of the boldest youths — to 
Suna in UrimI, for the villagers of Uveriveri had of 
course given us the desired information as to our 
whereabouts. The distance from Uveriveri to Suna 
was twenty-eight miles, as we subsequently discovered. 
Pinched with hunger themselves, the forty volunteers 
advanced with the resolution to reach Suna that night. 
They were instructed to purchase 800 pounds of grain, 
which would give a light load of twenty pounds to 
each man, and urged to return as quickly as possible, 
for the lives of their women and friends depended on 
their manliness. 

" Manwa Sera was also despatched with a party of 
twenty to hunt up the missing men. Late in the after- 
noon they returned with the news that three of the 
missing men were dead. They had lost the road, and, 
traveling along an elephant track, had struggled on till 



THROUGH THE WILDS Ot AFRICA. 367 

they perished of despair, hunger, and exhaustion. 
Simba and the donkey boy, the ass and its load of 
coffee, were never seen or heard of again. 

" With the sad prospect of starvation impending 
over us we were at various expedients to sustain life 
until the food purveyors should return. Early on the 
morning of the loth I travelled far and searched every 
likely place for game ; but though tracks were numerous, 
we failed to sight a single head. The Wangwana also 
roamed about the forest — for the Uveriveri ridge was 
covered with fine myombo trees — in search of edible 
roots and berries, and examined various trees to dis- 
cover whether they afforded anything that could allay 
the grievous and bitter pangs of hunger. Some found 
a putrid elephant, on which they gorged themselves, 
and were punished with nausea and sickness. Others 
found a lion's den, with two lion's whelps, which they 
brought to me. Meanwhile, Frank and I examined 
the medical stores, and found to our great joy we had 
sufficient oatmeal to give every soul two cupfuls of 
thin gruel. A * Torquay dress trunk' of sheet-iron 
was at once emptied of its contents and filled with 
twenty-five gallons of water, into which were put ten 
pounds of oatmeal and four one-pound tins of *reva- 
lenta arabica.' How the people, middle-aged and 
young gathered round that trunk, and heaped fuel 
underneath that it might boil the quicker ! How eagerly 
they watched it lest some calamity should happen, and 
clamored, when it was ready, for their share. And how 
inexpressibly satisfied they seemed as they tried to 
make the most of what they received, and with what 
fervor they thanked ' God ' for his mercies !" 



2,6S Stanley's story; or, 

On the 1 2th of January, Stanley reached Suna, 
where he halted four days. Owing to the deplorable 
condition of his people, but through the evident rest- 
lessness of the Warimi tribe at their presence, the 
insufficient quantity of food that could be purchased, 
and the growing importunings of the Wangwana to 
be led away from such a churlish and suspicious peo- 
ple, Stanley was sorely perplexed. He had now over 
thirty men on the sick list, and among them Edward 
Pocock, one of the young Englishmen, and who sub- 
sequently died. Owing to the sickness of temper 
from which the Warimi suffered, it became imperative 
that he should keep moving, if only two or three miles 
a day. Accordingly, on the 17th of January, he 
moved from his camp, the sick being carried in ham- 
mocks. Hundreds of the natives, fully armed, kept 
up with the caravan, on either side of its path. 

" Never since leavino- the sea were we weaker in 
spirit than on this day," says Stanley. " Had we been 
attacked, I doubt if we should have made much resist- 
ance. The famine in Ugogo, and that terribly pro- 
tracted trial of strength through the jungle of Uveri- 
veri, had utterly unmanned us." .... "We are an 
unspeakably miserable and disheartened band; yet, 
urged by our destiny, we struggled on, though lan- 
guidly. Our spirits seemed dying, or resolving them- 
selves into weights which oppressed our hearts. 
Weary, harassed, and feeble creatures, we arrived at 
Chiwyu, four hundred miles from the sea, and camped 
near the crest of a hill, which was marked by aneroid 
as 5400 feet above the level of the ocean." 

Mangura, Izanjeh, and Vinyata, were the next places 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 369 

which marked the route of Stanley^s expedition. At 
the latter place he made a halt of five days, meeting 
with no litde hostility from the natives, some skirmish- 
ing, and suffering the loss of some of his people. 
On the morning of the 26th, just before daybreak, he 
resumed his interrupted journey. On the 27th, at 
dawn, he crossed the Leewumbu, and the whole of that 
day and the day following his route was through a 
forest of fine myombo, intersected by singular narrow 
plains, forming at that season of the year so many 
quagmires. On the 29th he entered Mgongo Tembe, 
and formed the acquaintance of the Chief Malewa. 
On the 1st of February, after a very necessary halt 
of two days at Mgongo Tembe, with an addition 
to his force of eight pagazis and two guides, and en- 
couraged by favorable reports of the country in front, 
he entered Mangura in Usukuma, near a strange valley 
containing a forest of borassus palms, thence by way of 
Igira, through the magnificent plain of Luwamberri, 
and across the Itawa River on its western verge. On 
the 9th he crossed the Nanga ravine, and the next 
day arrived at the Seligwa, flowing to the Leewumbu, 
and, following its course for four miles, reached the 
hospitable village of Mombiti. 

On leaving the Leewumbu — or the Monangah River, 
as it is also called — Stanley struck northerly across a 
pathless country seamed with elephant tracks, rhinos- 
ceros wallows, and gullies which contained pools of 
gray, muddy water, and on the morning of the 17th 
arrived at eastern Usiha. Usiha is the commencement 
of a most beautiful pastoral country, which terminates 
only in the Victoria Nyanza, From the summit of one 



370 Stanley's story; or, 

of the weird gray rock-piles which characterize it, 
one may enjoy that unspeakable fascination of an ap- 
parently boundless horizon. " On all sides," says 
Stanley, " there stretches towards it the face of a vast 
circle replete with peculiar features, of detached hills, 
great crag-masses of riven and sharply-angled rock, 
and out-cropping mounds, between which heaves and 
rolls in low, broad waves a green, grassy plain, whereon 
feed thousands of cattle scattered about in small 
herds." 

On the morning of the 27th, five days later, Stanle^f 
had reached Gambachika, in North Usmau. This 
place is nineteen miles from the village of Kagehyi, 
his point of destination on Lake Victoria. 

In speaking of his last day's march, Stanley says: 
" The people were as keenly alive to the importance 
of this day's march, and as fully sensitive to what this 
final journey to Kagehyi promised their weary frames, 
as we Europeans. They, as well as ourselves, looked 
forward to many weeks of rest from our labors and to 
an abundance of good food. 

" When the bugle sounded the signal to * take the 
road,' the Wanyamezi and Wangwana responded to 
it with cheers, and loud cries of *Ay indeed! ay indeed! 
please God ! * and their good will was contagious. 
The natives, who had mustered strongly to witness 
our departure, were effected by it, and stimulated our 
people by declaring that the lake was not very far off 
— 'but two or three hours' walk.' 

"We dipped into the basins and troughs of the 
land, surmounted ridge after ridge, crossed water- 
courses and ravines, passed by cultivated fields, and 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 37 1 

through villages smelling strongly of cattle, by good- 
natured groups of natives, until, ascending a long, 
gradual slope, we heard, on a sudden, hurrahing in 
front, and then we too, with the lagging rear, knew 
that those in the van were in view of the great lake ! 

" Presently we also reached the brow of the hill, 
where we found the expedition halted, and the first 
quick view revealed to us a long, broad arm of water, 
which a dazzling sun transformed into silver, some 600 
feet below us, at a distance of three miles." 

In a short time the expedition had entered the vil- 
lage of Kagehyl, and Prince Kaduma, chief of Ka- 
gehyi, induced by one Sungoro, an Arab resident, prof- 
fered Its hospitalities to the strangers. In summing 
up, during the evening of his arrival at this rude vil- 
lage on the Nyanza, the number of statute miles 
travelled by him, as measured by two rated pedome- 
ters and pocket watch, Stanley ascertained it to be 720. 
The time occupied — from November 17, 1874, to 
February 27, 1875, inclusive — was 103 days, divided 
into seventy marching and thirty-three halting days — 
an average of a little over ten miles a day. 




CHAPTER XX. 

EXPLORATION OF VICTORIA NYANZA. 

Prepaa^ng the Lady Alice for Sea — Selects his Crew — ^The Start for the Circum* 
navigation of Lake Victoria — Afloat on the Lake — ^A Night at Uvuma — Bar- 
mecide Fare — Message from Mtesa — Camp on Soweh Island — ^An Extraordi- 
nary Monarch — Mtesa, Emperor of Uganda — Arrival at the Imperial Capital- 
Glowing Description of the Country — A Grand Mission Field — ^The Treachery 
of Bmnbireh — Saved ! — Refuge Island — Return to Camp at Kagehyi. 

The members of the expedition enjoyed their much- 
needed rest ; and Stanley, after taking the necessary 
observations to ascertain the position of Kagehyi, and 
its altitude above the sea ; to prepare paper, pens and 
ink for the morrow's report to the journals which had 
dispatched him to this remote and secluded part of 
the world ; to make calculations of the time likely to . 
be occupied in a halt at Kagehyi, in preparing and 
equipping th^ Lady Alice for sea ; — found that his own 
personal work had but begun. 

Within seven days the boat was ready, and strength- 
ened for a rough sea life. Provisions of flour and 
dried fish, bales of cloth, and beads of various kinds, 
odds and ends of small possible necessaries were 
boxed, and she was declared, at last, to be only waiting 
for her crew. From the young guides first selected 
by him at Bagamoyo, and who Kacheche, the detective, 
informed him were the sailors of the expedition, he 

made a list of ten sailors and a steersman, to who$e 

37a 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 373 1 

fidelity he was willing to entrust himself and fortunes 
while coasting round the Victorian sea. 

After drawing up instructions for Frank Pocock and 
Fred. Barker on a score of matters concerning the 
well-being of the expedition during his absence, and 
enlisting for them, by an adequate gift, the goodwill of 
Sungoro and Prince Kaduma, Stanley set sail on the 
8th of March, 1875, eastward along the shores of the 
broad arm of the lake which he first sighted, and which 
henceforth is known, in honor of its first discoverer, 
as " S^eke Gulf." 

Space will not permit us to follow the details of 
Stanley's voyage around the lake. Sufficient to say it 
was accompanied with many interesting and thrilling 
adventures with the different tribes along its shores. 
The most of these tribes were of a savage and war- 
like character, and gave the explorer no little amount 
of trouble. 

On the 29th of March he crossed Napoleon Chan- 
nel and coasted along Uganda between numerous 
islands, the largest of which are densely populated. At 
Kiwa Island he rested for the day, and was received 
with the greatest cordiality by the chief, who sent mes- 
sengers to the island of Kerenge, a distance of three 
miles, to purchase bananas and jars of maramba wine, 
for the guest, as he said, of the Kabaka Mtesa. " As 
it was the first time for twenty-two days that we had 
lived with natives since leaving Kagehyi we celebra- 
ted, as we were in duty bound, our arrival among 
friends," says Stanley. 

" The next day, guided and escorted by the chief, 
we entered Ukafu, where we found a tall, handsome, 



374 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

young Mtongoleh in command of the district, before 
whom the Chief of Kiwa Island made obeisance as 
before a great lord. The young Mtongoleh, though 
professing an ardent interest in us, and voluble of 
promises, treated us only to Barmecide fare, after 
waiting twenty-four hours. Perceiving that his cour- 
tesies, though suavely proffered, failed to satisfy the 
cravings of our jaded stomachs, we left him still pro- 
testing enormous admiration for us, and still volubly 
assuring us that he was preparing grand hospitalities 
in our honor. 

" I was staggered when I understood in its full ex- 
tent the perfect art with which we had been duped. 
* Could this be Central Africa,* I asked myself, 'wherein 
we find such perfect adepts in the art of deception ?' 
But two days ago the savagery of the land was intense 
and real, for every man's hand was raised in ferocity 
against the stranger. In the land next adjoining we 
find a people agreeable, and professing the warmest 
admiration for the stranger, but as inhospitable as any 
hotel-keeper in London or New York to a penniless 
guest!" 

Stanley it seems, however, had been premature in 
his judgment, as he subsequently discovered on arriv- 
ing at a little village in the bay of Buka. Here the 
Mtongoleh invited them to his village, spread out be- 
fore them a feast of new as well as clotted milk, mel- 
low and ripe bananas, a kid, sweet potatoes, and eggs, 
and despatched a messenger instantly to the Kabaka 
Mtesa to announce the coming of a stranger in the 
land, declaring at the same time his intention not to 
abandon them until he had brought them face to face 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. S75 

with the great Monarch of Equatorial Africa, in whom, 
he smiHngly assured them, they should meet a friend, 
and under whose protection they might sleep secure. 

Mr. Stanley's description of this land and its peo- 
ple is very graphic and interesting, and we quote: 
" My admiration for the land and the people steadily 
increased, for I experienced with each hour some 
pleasing civility. The land was in fit accord with the 
people, and few more interesting prospects could 
Africa furnish than that which lovingly embraces the 
bay of Buka. From the margin of the lake, lined by 
waving water-cane, up to the highest hill-top, all was 
verdure of varying shades. The light green of the 
elegant matete contrasted with the deeper tints of the 
various species of figs ; the satin-sheeny fronds of the 
graceful plantains were overlapped by clouds of the 
pale foliage of the tamarind, while between and around 
all the young grass of the pastured hillsides spread 
its emerald carpet. In free, bold, and yet graceful out- 
line the hills shut in the scene, swelling upward in full, 
dome-like contour, here sweeping round to enclose 
within its hollow a gorgeous plantain grove, there pro- 
jecting boldly into abrupt, steep head-lands, and again 
receding in a succession of noble terraces into regions 
as yet unexplored by the white man. One village 
had a low, pebbly beach, that ran in a sinuous, light- 
grey line between a darker grey face of the lake and 
the living perennial green of a banana plantation. 
I imagine myself fallen into an estate which I had in- 
herited by right divine and human; or at least I felt 
something akin to that large feeling which heirs of un- 
encumbered broad lands may be supposed to feel, and 



376 Stanley's story; or, 

attributed such an unusual feeling to an attack of per- 
fect digestion, and a free, unclogged, and undisturbed 
liver." 

On the 2d of April, Stanley proceeded along the 
beautiful shore separating Buka Bay from Kadzi Bay, 
and halted about noon at the village of Kirudo, here 
experiencing hospitalities similar to those of the pre- 
vious day. 

Just as they were about to depart next morning 
they perceived six beautiful canoes, crowded with men, 
coming round a point, and these they were informed 
by their hospitable entertainer of Buka were the 
Kabaka's people. In the middle of the bay of Kadzi 
they encountered, and a most ceremonious greeting 
took place. The commander, a fine, lusty fellow of 
twenty or thereabout, sprang into Stanley's boat, and 
kneeling before him, declared his errand in these 
words : 

" The Kabaka sends me with many salaams to you. 
He is in great hopes that you will visit him, and has 
encamped at Usavara, that he may be near the lake 
when you come. He does not know from what land 
you come; but I have a swift messenger with a canoe 
who will not stop until he gives all the news to the 
Kabaka, His mother dreamed a dream a few nights 
ago, and in her dream she saw a white man on this 
lake in a boat coming this way, and the next morning 
she told the Kabaka, and, lo ! you have come. Give 
me your answer, that I may send the messenger." 

Receiving his instructions from Stanley, through 
Magassa, who acted as interpreter, the messenger im- 
mediately departed. Persuaded by Magassa to rest 



THkOUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 377 

for a day that he might be shown the hospitality of the 
country, Stanley rowed to the village of Kadzi. Here 
Magassa was in his glory, as shown by his imperious 
commands given on arrival of the guests and escort : 

" Bring out bullocks, sheep and goats, milk, and the 
mellowest of your choicest bananas, and great jars of 
maramba, and let the white man and his boatmen eat 
and taste of the hospitalities of Uganda. Shall a 
white man enter the Kabaka's presence with an empty 
belly ? See how sallow and pinched his cheeks are ! 
We want to see whether we cannot show him kindness 
superior to what the pagans have shown him." 

" A wonderful land !" thought Stanley, '' where an 
entire country can be subjected to such an inordinate 
bully and vain youth as this Magassa at the mere men- 
tion of the Kabaka's name, and very evidently with 
Kabaka$ sanction !" 

The following day Stanley sallied from Kadzi Bay, 
with Magassa's escort leading the way, and at 10 A. M. 
entered Murchison Bay, camping behind Soweh Island, 
on the east side of the bay. 

Stanley's account of his arrival at Usavara, and the 
reception accorded him by the Kabaka and his people, 
is highly interesting and graphic. " Compared with 
our lonely voyage from our camp at Usukuma round 
all the bays and inlets of the much-indented coasts of 
the great lakes," says Stanley, " the five superb ca- 
noes forming line in front of our boat, escorting us to 
the presence of the great potentate of Equatorial 
Africa, formed a scene which promised at least novelty, 
and a view of some extraordinary pomp and cere- 
mony." 



^yS Stanley's story; or, 

"When about two miles from Usavara, we saw* 
what we estimated to be thousands of people arrang- 
ing themselves In order on a gently rising ground. 
When about a mile from shore, Magassa gave the 
order to signal our advance upon it with firearms, and 
was at once obeyed by his dozen musketeers. Half 
a mile off I saw that the people on the shore had formed 
themselves into two dense lines, at the ends of which 
stood several finely-dressed men, arrayed in crimson 
and black and snowy white. As we neared the beach 
volleys of musketry burst out from the long lines. 
Magassa's canoes steered outward to right and left, 
while 200 or 300 heavily-loaded guns announced to all 
around that the white man — whom Mtesa's mother 
had dreamed about — had landed. Numerous kettle 
and bass drums sounded a noisy welcome, and flags, 
banners, and bannerets waved, and the people gave a 
great shout. Very much amazed at all this ceremo* 
nious and pompous greeting, I strode towards the 
great standard, near which stood a short young man» 
dressed in a crimson robe which covered an Immacu- 
lately white dress of bleached cotton, before whom 
Magassa, who had hurried ashore, kneeled reverently, 
and turning to me begged me to understand that this 
short young man was the Katekiro, Not knowing 
very well who the * Katekiro ' was, I only bowed, 
which, strange to say, was imitated by him, only that 
his bow was far more profound and stately than mine. I 
was complexed, confused, embarrassed, and I believe I 
blushed inwardly at this regal reception, though I hope 
1 did not betray my embarrassment. 

" A dozen well-dressed people now came forward. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 379 

and grasping my hand declared in the Swahili lan- 
guage that I was welcome to Uganda/' 

Escorted to comfortable quarters, and after a some- 
what extended interview with the head men who had 
received him, Stanley and his men were made the 
recipients of fourteen fat oxen, sixteen goats and sheep, 
a hundred bunches of bananas, three dozen fowls, 
four wooden jars of milk, four baskets of sweet pota- 
toes, fifty ears of green Indian corn, a basket of rice, 
twenty fresh eggs, and ten pots of maramba wine. 
Kauta, Mtesa's steward or butler, who accompanied 
the drovers and bearers of these provisions, fell upon 
his knees before Stanley, and said : 

" The Kabaka sends salaams unto his friend who has 
travelled so far to see him. The Kabaka cannot see 
the face of his friend until he has eaten and is satis- 
fied. The Kabaka has sent his slave with these few 
things to his friend that he may eat, and at the ninth 
hour, after his friend has rested, the Kabaka will send 
and call for him to appear at the burzah." 

At the ninth hour, as designated, two of the Ka- 
baka! s pages summoned Stanley and his men to meet 
him. "The Kabaka, a tall, clean-faced, large-eyed, 
nervous-looking, thin man, clad in a tarbush, black 
robe, with a white shirt belted with gold, shook my 
hands warmly and impressively," says Stanley, " and, 
bowing not ungracefully, invited me to be seated on an 
iron stool. I waited for him to show the example, and 
then I and all the others seated ourselves." 

Stanley's impression of this prince, as gathered from 
his correspondence, is of extreme interest to the civil- 
ized world, and more especially to the Christian 



38o Stanley's story; or, 

Church. Mtesa impressed him as being an intelligent 
and distinguished man, who, if aided in time by virtu- 
ous philanthropists, would do more for Central Africa 
than fifty years of Gospel teaching, unaided by such 
authority, could do. 

" I think I see in him the light that shall lighten the 
darkness of this benighted region — a prince well worthy 
the most hearty sympathies that Europe can give him. 
In this man I see the possible fruition of Livingstone's 
hopes, for with his aid the civilization of Equatorial 
Africa becomes feasible. I remember the ardor and 
love which animated Livingstone when he spoke of 
Sekeletu. Had he seen Mtesa, his ardor and love for 
him had been tenfold, and his pen would have been 
employed in calling all men to assist him," writes Stan- 
ley of this remarkable prince and ruler. 

On the 15th of April, Stanley returned to Usavara, 
after having spent a fifteen days' life at the Emperor's 
Court at Rubaga. 

The following extract of a letter, under date of 
April 14th, 1875, written and sent to the " Daily Tele- 
graph" and " New York Herald" from this point, is a 
strong appeal for the establishment of a Christian 
Mission in Uganda: 

" I have, indeed, undermined Islamism so much here 
that Mtesa has determined henceforth, until he is bet- 
ter informed, to observe the Christian Sabbath as well 
as the Moslem Sabbath, and the great captains have 
unanimously consented to this. He has further caused 
the Ten Commandments of Moses to be written on a 
board for his daily perusal — for Mtesa can read Arabic 
— as well as the Lord's Prayer and the golden com- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 38 1 

mandment of our Saviour, * Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself. ' This is great progress for the few 
days that I have remained with him ; and though I am 
no missionary, I shall begin to think that I might be- 
come one if such success is feasible. But, oh ! that 
some pious, practical missionary would come here ! 
What a field and harvest ripe for the sickle of Civiliza- 
tion ! Mtesa would give him anything he desired — 
houses, lands, cattle, ivory, etc. He might call a prov- 
ince his own in one day. It is not the mere preacher, 
however, that is wanted here. The bishops of Great 
Britain collected, with all the classic youth of Oxford 
and Cambridge, would effect nothing by mere talk with 
the intelligent people of Uganda. It is the practical 
Christian tutor, who can teach people how to become 
Christians, cure their diseases, construct dwellings, un- 
derstand and exemplify agriculture, and turn his hand 
to anything, like a sailor — this is the man who is 
wanted. Such an one, if he can be found, would be- 
come the saviour of Africa. He must be tied to no 
church or sect, but profess God and His Son and the 
moral law, and live a blameless Christian, inspired by 
liberal principles, charity to all men, and devout faith 
in Heaven. He must belong to no nation in particu- 
lar, but to the entire white race. Such a man or men, 
Mtesa, Emperor of Uganda, Usoga, Unyoro, and 
Karagwe — an empire 360 geographical miles in length 
by 50 in breadth — invites to repair to him. He has 
begged me to tell the white men that, if they will only 
come to him, he will give them all they want. Nqw, 
where is there in all the pagan world a more promis- 
ing field for a mission than Uganda ?" " Then 



382 Stanley's story; or, 

why further spend, needlessly, vast sums upon iDlack 
pagans of Africa who have no example of their own 
people becoming Christians before them ? I speak to 
the Universities' Mission at Zanzibar and to the Free 
Methodists at Mombassa, to the leading philanthopists 
and the pious people of England. Here, gentlemen, 
is your opportunity — embrace.it! The people on the 
shores of the Nyanza call upon you. Obey your own 
generous instincts, and listen to them ; and I assure 
you that in one year you will have more converts to 
Christianity than all other missionaries united can num- 
ber. The population of Mtesa's kingdom is very 
dense. I estimate the number of his subjects at 2,000,- 
000. You need not fear to spend money upon such a 
mission, as Mtesa is sole ruler, and will repay its cost 
tenfold with ivory, coffee, otter skins of a very fine 
quality, or even in cattle, for the wealth of this coun- 
try in all these products is immense." 

On the 17th of April he resumed his voyage along 
the shores of the great lake, and delightedly enjoyed 
the beautiful panorama of nature as it passed in re- 
view before him. Many of the scenes presented most 
lovely vistas to the eyes of Stanley as he scanned the 
ever-changing outlines of water and sky. To follow 
him closely in his journeyings, and to enter fully into 
all the minor details of his observations would require 
more space than these pages afford. We can, there- 
fore, but confine ourselves to the most noted incidents 
that came under his observation, and such as are of the 
most thrilling and adventurous character. As an 
instance, we will give for the benefit of our readers 
one of Stanley's pen pictures of what he saw at this 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 383 

time. It was upon the island of Musira. He had 
after some little difficulty scaled the summit of its 
highest point, whence he gazed long on the grand 
encircling prospect. A halcyon calm brooded on the 
lake, eastward, northward, arid southward, until the 
clear sky and stainless silver water met, the clear 
bounds of both veiled by a gauzy vapor, suggesting 
infinity. 

" It is a spot," says Stanley, " from which, undis- 
turbed, the eye may rove over one of the strangest 
yet fairest portions of Africa — hundreds of square 
miles of beautiful lake scenes — a great length of grey 
plateau wall, upright and steep, but indented with ex- 
quisite inlets, half surrounded by embowering plan- 
tains — hundreds of square miles of pastoral upland 
dotted thickly with villages and groves of banana. 
From my lofty eyrie I can see herds upon herds of 
cattle, and many minute specks, white and black, which 
can be nothing but flocks of sheep and goats. I can 
also see pale blue columns of ascending smoke from 
the fires, and upright thin figures moving about. Se- 
cure on my lofty throne, I can view their movements 
and laugh at the ferocity of the savage hearts which 
beat in those thin dark figures ; for I am a part of 
nature now, and for the present as invulnerable as 
itself. As little do they know that human eyes sur- 
vey their forms from the summit of this lake-girt 
isle as that the eyes of the Supreme in Heaven are 
upon them. 

" What a land they possess ! and what an inland 
sea ! How steamers afloat on the lake might cause 
Ururi to shake hands with Usongora, and Uganda with 



3S4 Stanley's story; or, 

Usukuma, make the wild Wavuma friends with the 
Wazinza, and unite the Wakerawe with the Wagana!'* 

His experiences at Bumbireh Island were not so 
pleasant, however. Here, when about ten yards from 
the beach, the natives, who had been invited with en- 
gaging frankness to come closer, did so ; and after con- 
sulting a little while, leisurely advanced into the water 
until they touched the boat's prow. They stood a few 
seconds talking sweetly, when suddenly with a rush 
they ran the boat ashore, and then ^11 the others, 
seizing hawser and gunwale, dragged her about twenty 
yards over the rocky beach high and dry, leaving 
Stanley and his men almost stupefied with astonish- 
ment. 

" Then ensued a scene which beggars description," 
says Stanley. " Pandemonium — all its devils armed — 
raged around us. A forest of spears was leveled ; 
thirty or forty bows were drawn taut ; as many barbed 
arrows seemed already on the wing; thick, knotty 
clubs waved above our heads ; two hundred screaming 
black demons jostled with each other and struggled 
for room to vent their fury, or for an opportunity to 
deliver one crushing blow or thrust at us. 

" In the meantime, as soon as the first symptoms of 
this manifestation of violence had been observed, I had 
sprung to my feet, each hand armed with a loaded 
self-cocking revolver, to kill and be killed. But the 
apparent hopelessness of inflicting much injury upon 
such a large crowd restrained me, and Safeni turned 
to me, though almost cowed to dumbness by the loud 
fury around us, and pleaded with me to be patient. 
I complied, seeing that I should get no aid from my 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 385 

crew ; but, while bitterly blaming myself for my impru- 
dence in having yielded — against my instincts — to 
placing myself in the power of such savages, I vowed 
that, if I escaped this once, my own judgment should 
guide my actions in the future. 

" Our demeanor had a great effect. The riot and 
•noise seemed to be subsiding, when some fifty new- 
comers rekindled the smouldering fury. Again the 
forest of spears swayed on the launch, again the knotty 
clubs were whirled aloft and the bows were drawn, and 
again the barbed arrows seemed flying. Safeni re- 
ceived a push which sent him tumbling, little Kirango 
received a blow on the head with a spear-staff, and Sa- 
ramba gave a cry as a club descended on his back. 

" The elder, whatever he thought, responded with 
an affectation of indignation, raised his stick, and to the 
right and left of him drove back the demoniac crowd. 
Other prominent men now assisted this elder, whom 
we subsequently discovered to be Shekka, the King of 
Bumbireh. 

" Shekka having thus bestirred himself, beckoned to 
half-a-dozen men and walked away a few yards behind 
the mass. It was the ' Shauri,' dear to a free and inde- 
pendent African's heart, that was about to be held. 
Half the crowd followed the King and his council, 
while the other half remained to indulge their violent^ 
vituperative tongues on us, and to continually men- 
ace us with either club or spear. An audacious party 
came round the stern of the boat, and, with superla- 
tively hideous gestures, affronted me. One of them 
even gave a tug at my hair, thinking it was a wig. I 
revenged myself by seizing his hand, and suddenly 



386 Stanley's story; or, 

bending It back almost dislocated It, causing him to 
howl with pain. His comrades swayed their lances ; 
but I smilingly looked at them, for all Idea of self-pre- 
servation had now almost fled." 

Next some of the boldest approached the boat and 
took away the oars, and shortly thereafter messengers 
came demanding ransoms of cloths and necklaces. 
These were delivered. After the warriors departed, 
some women came to look at the Invaders. Kindly 
spoken to, these gave the consoling assurance that the 
invaders would be killed ; but they said that If Shekka 
could be Induced to make blood-brotherhood, or to eat 
honey with one of them, they would be safe. If that 
failed, there was only flight or death. Stanley offered 
the Shekka three fundo of beads, and asked him to 
exchange blood with him; but the King refused. Then 
fifty bold fellows came rushing down the hill, uttering 
a shrill cry. Without hesitation they came straight to 
the boat, seizing the KIganda drum. Loud applause 
followed this act of gallantry. Then came two others 
who began to drive away some cows that were graz- 
ing between Stanley and the village. 

" Why do you do that ?" asked Safeni, one of Stan- 
ley's men. 

" Because we are going to fight presently, and if you 
are men, you may begin to prepare yourselves," he 
scornfully replied. 

" Thanks, my bold friend," muttered Stanley to him- 
self. "Those are the truest words we have heard 
to-day." 

While the two men were retiring up the hill, Stan- 
ley directed Safeni to take two fine red cloths in his 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 2>^J 

hand, walk slowly up after them a little way, and the 
moment he should hear his voice run back. His men 
he commanded to arrange themselves on each side of 
the boat ; lay their hands on it carelessly, but with a 
firm grip, and when he should give the word, push it 
with the force of a hundred men down the hill into the 
water. His men all properly disposed as he had 
directed, he told Safeni to advance with the red cloth. 

Stanley says : " I waited until he had walked fifty 
yards away, and saw that he acted precisely as I had 
instructed him. Then I shouted, * Push, my boys ; 
push for your lives !' 

" The crew bent their heads and strained their arms ; 
the boat began to move, and there was a hissing, grind- 
ing noise below me. I seized my double-barrelled 
elephant rifle and shouted, 'Safeni ! Safeni, return !' 

" The natives were quick-eyed. They saw the boat 
moving, and with one accord they swept down the hill 
uttering the most fearful cries. 

" My boat was at the water's edge. * Shoot her into 
the lake, my men ; never mind the water ;' and, clear 
of all obstructions, she darted out upon the lake. 

" Safeni stood for an instant on the water's edge, 
with the cloths in his hand. The foremost of a crowd 
of natives was about twenty yards from him. He 
raised his spear and balanced himself * Spring into 
the water, man, head first,' I cried. 

" The balanced spear was about to fly, and another 
man was preparing his weapon for a deadly cast, when 
I raised my gun and the bullet ploughed through him 
and through the second. The bowmen halted and 
drew their bows. I sent two charges of duck-shot into 



388 Stanley's story* or, 

their midst with terrible effect. The natives then 
retreated from that part of the beach on which the 
boat had lately lain. 

" The crew tore the bottom boards out of the boat 
and used them as paddles. Meanwhile the savages, 
baffled and furious at seeing their prey escape, had 
rushed, after a short consultation, to man two canoes 
that were drawn up on the beach at the northwest 
corner of the cove. Twice I dropped men as they 
endeavored to launch the boats ; but they persisted, 
and, finally launching them, pursued us vigorously. 
Two other canoes were seen coming down the coast 
from the eastern side of the island. Unable to 
escape, we stopped after we had got out of the cove, 
and waited for them. My elephant rifle was loaded 
with explosive balls for this occasion. Four shots killed 
five men and sank two of the canoes. The two others 
retired to assist their friends out of the water. They 
attempted nothing further. We were saved ! *' 

The 30th of April Stanley and his crew reached 
Refuge Island, a hungry and wearied-out set of people. 
Here they were very fortunate in procuring some wild 
game and fruit, and rested several days. 

The expedition, having now almost reached its jour- 
ney's end, the members were all in good spirits, and, 
although the weather -was somewhat tempestuous 
during the remainder of the trip, there occurred nothing 
of moment to mar the pleasant expectations they had 
in store, and which they were permitted to realize with 
glad hearts on the 6th of May, having been absent 
just fifty-seven days in making the circuit of Victoria 
Nyanza, 



CHAPTER XXI. 

RETURNS TO UGANDA. 

Leaves Kagehyi with Half his Expedition — Arrival at Refuge Island — Brings 
up the Rest — Encamped on Refuge Island — Interview^ed by Iroba Canoes — Stan- 
ley's Friendship Scorned — The King of Bumbireh a Hostage— The Massacre 
of the Kytawa Chief and his Crew — The Punishment of the Murderers — Its 
Salutary Effect upon their Neighbors — Arrival in Uganda — Life and Manners 
in Uganda — The Emperor — The Land — En-route for Muta Nzige — The White 
People of Gambaragara — Lake Windermere — Rumanika, the King of Karag- 
we — His Country — The Ingezi — The Hot Springs of Mtagata— Ubagwe — 
Msene — Across the Malagarazi to Ujiji — Sad Reflections. 

On the 20th of June, Stanley again sailed from Ka- 
gehyi with his expedition, having procured the loan of 
fifty canoes from Lukongeh, the amiable King of Uke- 
rewe, and arrived safely at Refuge Island, half way to 
Uganda and two days' sail from Bumbireh. This lat- 
ter place was where the savages had made the treach- 
erous attack upon his expedition, so graphically de- 
scribed in the previous chapter. 

After a few days' rest on Refuge Island they pro- 
ceeded on their voyage, and remembering the bitter 
injuries he. had received from the natives of Bumbireh, 
and the death by violence and starvation he and his 
party had so narrowly escaped, Stanley resolved that, 
unless they should make amends for their cruelty and 
treachery, he would attack them and administer such 
punishment as would prove a salutary lesson, and 
teach them the duty of hospitality to travellers in 
the future. 

389 



390 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Stanley first sent a message to the natives of Bum- 
bireh to the effect that if they would deliver their King 
and the two principal chiefs under him into his hands, 
he would make peace with them. This ultimatum 
was received with contempt; but by a stratagem Stan- 
ley succeeded in getting the King of Bumbireh 
brought to him, who was at once heavily chained. 
Being in want of supplies for his party, Stanley sent 
to Bumbireh to procure food ; but the natives, instead 
of giving any, attacked his men, wounding eight and 
killing a friendly chief, which was another reason why 
Bumbireh should be punished. 

Accordingly Stanley started off, on the following 
morning, with a force of two hundred and eighty men 
— fifty muskets, two hundred and thirty spearsmen — 
in eighteen canoes, and reached the island of Bumbi- 
reh about two in the afternoon. The natives had evi- 
dently been anticipating some trouble, for as they 
approached messengers were observed running fast 
to a plantain grove that stood on a low hill command- 
ing a clear open view of a little port at the southern 
end of the island, from which they concluded that the 
main force of the savages was hidden behind the 
grove. 

Perceiving that they were too strong' to attack 
them in the plantain grove, Stanley steered for the 
opposite shore, intending to disembark his force there ; 
but as soon as the natives saw this, they rose from 
their coverts, and ran along the hill slopes to meet 
Stanley, which was precisely what he wished they 
would do, and accordingly he ordered his force to pad- 
dle slowly, so as to give them time. In half an hour 



THROUGH THE WlLDS OF AFklCA. 39 1 

the savages were all assembled on the slope of a hill 
in knots and groups, and after approaching within 
one hundred yards of the shore Stanley formed his 
line of battle, the American and English flags waving 
as their ensigns. Having anchored each canoe so as 
to turn its broadside to the shore, he ordered a volley 
to be fired at one group which numbered about fifty, 
and the result was ten killed and thirty wounded. 
The savages, perceiving the danger of standing in 
groups, separated themselves along the lake shore, 
and advanced to the water's edge, slinging stones and 
shooting arrows. Stanley then ordered the canoes to 
advance within fifty yards of the shore, and to fire as 
if they were shooting birds. After an hour the sava- 
ges saw that they could not defend themselves at the 
water s edge, and retreated up the hill slope, where 
they continued still exposed to the fire from the boats. 

Another hour was spent in this manner, after which 
Stanley caused the canoes to come together, and told 
them to advance in a body to the shore as if they were 
about to disembark. This caused the enemy to make 
an effort to repulse their landing, and, accordingly, 
hundreds came down with their spears ready on the 
launch. When they were close to the water's edge the 
bugle sounded a halt, and another volley was fired into 
the dense crowd, which had such a disastrous effect on 
them that they retired far up the hill, and the work of 
punishment had been consummated. 

The loss of the savages was very great, as might 
naturally be expected, considering they were so ex- 
posed on a shore covered only with short grass. 
Forty- two were counted lying dead on the field, and 



392 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

over one hundred were seen to retire wounded. Stan- 
ley's spearsmen were very anxious that he should 
allow them to land and utterly destroy the Bumbirehs ; 
but this he refused, saying that he had not come to 
destroy the island, but to punish them for their treach- 
ery and attempted murder of himself and party when 
they had put faith in their professed friendship. 

After leaving Bumbireh, Stanley next landed and 
camped at Dumo Uganda, which is a two days' march 
north of the Kagera River and two days south of the 
Katonga River. This camp he selected for his expe- 
dition because it was intermediate, whence he could 
start on a northwest, west, or southwest course for the 
Albert Nyanza, after ascertaining from Mtesa which 
was best : for between the Victoria Nyanza and the 
Albert Nyanza are very powerful tribes, the Wasa- 
gara, Wa Ruanda, and Wasangora especially, who 
were continually at war with Mtesa. 

Here Stanley remained several days, until he could 
procure force sufficient from Mtesa to pierce the hos- 
tile country through which alone he could penetrate to 
the Albert Nyanza, the aim of his present expedition. 
He himself was of opinion that unless the Emperor 
gave him a force of fifty thousand men, it would be 
almost hopeless to expect that they could hold their 
ground long enough to enable him to set out on 
a two-months' voyage of exploration and find on his 
return the expedition still intact and safe. On pre- 
senting these views to the Emperor, he and his chiefs 
assured Stanley that two thousand men were amply 
sufficient, as Kabba Rega would not dare to lift a spear 
against the Waganda, because it was he (Mtesa) who 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 393 

had seated Kabba Rega on the throne of Kamrasi. 
Though not quite convinced with the assurances 
Mtesa crave him that there would be no trouble, Stan- 
ley entreated him no further, but accepted thankfully 
General Samboozi and two thousand men as escort. 

The march across Uganda, west and northwest, was 
uninterrupted by any event to mar the secret 
joy Stanley felt in being once more on the move to 
new fields of exploration. The party made a bold 
show of spears and guns while marching across the 
easy swells of pastoral western Uganda. 

Arriving at the frontier of Unyoro, they made all 
warlike preparations, and on January 5th entered 
Kabba Rega's territory. The people fled before them, 
leaving their provisions behind them, of which free 
use was made. On the 9th they camped at the base 
of Mt. Kabuga, at an altitude of* 5500 feet above the 
sea. East of the low ridge on which they camped 
the Katonga River was rounding from the north to the 
east on its course toward Lake Victoria, and west of 
camp the Rusango River boomed hoarse thunder from 
its many cataracts and falls as it rushed westward 
to Lake Albert. From one of the many spurs of Ka- 
buga they obtained a passing glimpse of the king of 
mountains, Gambaragari, which attains an altitude of 
between 13,000 and 15,000 feet above the ocean. 

On the summit of this high mountain Stanley came 
across a strange, pale-faced tribe of natives, complex- 
ion almost European — a handsome race, some of the 
women being singularly beautiful. Their hair is 
kinky, but inclined to brown in color. Their features 
are regular and lips thin ; but their noses, though well- 



394 STANLEYS story; or, 

shaped, are somewhat thick at the point. Several of 
their descendants are scattered throughout Unyoro, 
Ankori, and Ruanda, and the royal family of the latter 
powerful country are distinguished by their pale com- 
plexions. The Queen of Sasua Islands, in the Victoria 
Nyanza, is a descendant of this tribe. 

Whence this singular people came Stanley was 
unable to determine, further than to surmise from a 
clew which he mentions, viz.: that the first King of 
Kishakka, a country to the southwest, was an Arab, 
whose cimeter is still preserved with much reverence 
by the present reigning family of Kishakka. 

This mountain is an extinct volcano, and on the sum- 
mit is a crystal clear lake about hve hundred yards in 
length, from the centre of which rises a column-like 
rock to a great height. A rim of firm rock, like a 
wall, surrounds the summit, within which are several 
villages, where the -chief of this singular tribe and his 
people reside. 

The first King of Unyoro gave them the land 
around the base of the Gambaragari mountain, wherein 
through many vicissitudes they have continued to re- 
side for centuries. On the approach of an invading 
army they retreat to the summit of the mountain, the 
intense cold of which defies the most determined of 
their enemies. Several years ago Emperor Mtesa 
despatched his Prime Minister with about one hundred 
thousand men to Gambaragari and Usongora; but 
though the great General of Uganda occupied the 
slopes and ascended to a great height in pursuit, he 
was compelled by the inclement climate to descend 
without having captured more than a few black 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 395 

slaves, the pale-faced tribe having retreated to their 
impregnable fortress at the summit. 

About four years previous to this, when exploring 
the Tanganyika with Livingstone, they heard that 
there existed a race of white men north of the Uzigo. 
At that time Livingstone and Stanley smiled at the 
absurdity of a white people living in the heart of Africa ; 
but here Stanley actually sees them, and discovers the 
truth of the report. 

After leaving the Gambaragari mountain and its 
pace-faced inhabitants, Stanley penetrated through 
the Unyoro country to the borders of the Lake Albert; 
but finding it utterly impossible, through the deter- 
mined opposition of the natives, to procure any canoes, 
he was forced to return to Uganda, to discover other 
routes and countries more amenable to reason and 
open to friendly gifts than hostile Unyoro or incorrigi- 
ble Ankori. 

The geographical knowledge acquired by their forci- 
ble push to the Albert Nyanza was of the highest im- 
portance, and well repaid Stanley, even though in the 
end he was forced to return. The lay of the plateau 
separating the great reservoirs of the Nile, the Vic- 
toria and Albert Nyanzas, the structure of the moun- 
tains and ridges, and the course of the water-sheds, 
and the course of the rivers Katonga and Rusango 
have been revealed. The great mountain Gambara- 
gari and its singular people have been discovered, be- 
sides a portion of a gulf of the Albert, which Stanley 
called, in honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Bea- 
trice, Beatrice Gulf. 

This gulf, almost a lake itself, is formed by the pro- 
go 



396 Stanley's story; or, 

montory of Usongora, which runs southwest some 
thirty miles from a point ten geographical miles north 
of Unyampaka. The eastern coast of the gulf is formed 
by the countries of Irangara, Unyampaka, Buhuju and 
Mpororo, which coast-line runs a nearly south south- 
west course. Between Mpororo and Usongora extend 
the islands of the maritime state of Utumbi. West of 
Unsongora is Ukonju, on the western coast of Lake 
Albert, reputed to be peopled by cannibal's. North 
of Ukonju is the great country of Ulegga. 

Coming to the eastern coast of Lake Albert we 
have Ruanda running from Mpororo on the east to 
Ukonju on the west, occupying the whole of the south 
and southeast coast of Lake Albert. North of Un- 
yampaka, on the east side, is Irangara, and north of 
Irangara the district of Toro. Unyoro occupies the 
whole of the east side from the Murchison Falls of 
the Victoria Nile to Mpororo ; for Unyampaka, Toro, 
Buhuju and Irangara are merely districts of Unyoro. 
The great promontory of Usongora, which half shuts 
in Beatrice Gulf, is tributary to Kabba Rega, though 

. governed by Nyika, King of Gambaragara. 

\ Usongora is the great salt field whence all the sur- 
rounding countries obtain their salt. It is, from all 
accounts, a very land of wonders ; but the traveller 
desirous of exploring it should have a thousand Sni- 
ders to protect him — for the natives, like those of 
Ankori, care for nothing but milk and goatskins. 
Among the wonders credited to it are a mountain 
emitting "fire and stones," a salt lake of considerable 
extent, several hills of rock salt, a large plain encrus- 
ted thickly with salt and alkali, a breed of very large 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 397 

dogs of extraordinary ferocity, and a race of such 
long-legged natives that ordinary mortals regard them 
with surprise and awe. The Waganda, who have 
invaded their country for the sake of booty, ascribe a 
cool courage to them, against which all their numbers 
and well-known expertness with shield and spear were 
of little avail. They are, besides, extremely clannish, 
and allow none of their tribe to intermarry with 
strangers, and their diet consists solely of milk. Their 
sole occupation consists in watching their cows, of 
which they have an immense number; and it was to 
capture some of these herds that the Emperor of 
Uganda sent one hundred thousand men, under his 
Prime Minister, to Usongora. The expedition was 
successful, for by all accounts the Waganda returned 
to their country with about twenty thousand ; but so 
dearly w^re they paid for with the loss of human life, 
that it is doubtful whether such a raid will again be 
attempted to Usongora. 

Upon arriving at Karagwe, Stanley was enabled 
through the kindness of the King, Rumainka, to ex- 
plore the frontier of Keragwe as far north as Mpororo, 
and south as Ugufu. The yacht Lady Alice was con- 
veyed to Speke's Lake Windermere, and the sections 
screwed together, and after circumnavigating the lake, 
they entered the Kagera River, when it almost im- 
mediately flashed across Stanley's mind that he had 
made another grand discovery — that he had discov- 
ered, in fact, the true parent of the Victoria Nile. 

A glance at Speke's map will show the reader that 
he calls the river the Kitangule River, and that he has 
two tributaries running to it, called respectively the 



398 Stanley's story; or, 

Luchuro and the Ingezi. Speke, so wonderfully cor 
rect, with a mind which grasped geographical knowl- 
edge with great acuteness, and arranged the details 
with clever precision and accuracy, Stanley thinks is 
seriously in error in calling this noble river Kitangule. 
Neither Waganda nor Wanyamba know it by that 
name ; but they all know the Kagera River, which flows 
near Kitangule. From its mouth to Wrundi it is 
known by the natives on both banks as the Kagera 
River. The Luchuro, or rather Lukaro, means "higher 
up," but is no name of any river. 

While exploring the Victoria Lake, Stanley had 
ascended a few miles up the Kagera, and was 
even then struck with its great volume and depth, so 
much so as to rank it as the principal affluent of the 
Victoria Lake. On this occasion he discovered, on 
sounding, that it was fifty-two feet deep and fifty yards 
wide. Proceeding on his voyage up the river for three 
days, he came to another lake about nine miles in 
length and a mile in width, situate on the right hand 
of the stream. At the southern end of this lake they 
came to the island of Unyamubi, a mile and a half in 
length. Ascending the highest point on the island, 
the secret of the Kagera or Ingezi was revealed. 

Standing in the middle of the island, he perceived it 
was about three miles from the coast of Karagwe and 
three miles from the coast of Kishakka west, so that 
the width of the Ingezi at this point was about six 
miles, and north it stretched away broader, and beyond 
the horizon green papyri mixed with broad gray gleams 
of water. He also discovered, after further explora- 
tion, that the expanses of papyri floated over a depth 




A SHORE SCENE ON LAKE WINDERMERE. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 399 

of from nine to fourteen feet of water ; that the papyri, 
in fact, covered a large portion of a long, shallow lake; 
that the river, though apparently a mere swift flowing 
body of water, confined apparently within proper banks 
by dense tall fields of papyri, was a mere current, and 
that underneath the papyri it supplied a lake varying 
from five to fourteen miles in width and about eighty 
geographical miles in length. 

On exploring the Kagera throughout its entire 
length (eighty miles) Stanley found that it maintains 
almost the same volume and almost the same width, 
discharging its surplus waters to the right and to the 
left, as it flows on, feeding, by means of the under- 
ground channels what might be called by an observer 
on land, seventeen separate lakes, but which are in 
reality one lake, connected together underneath the 
fields of papyri, and by lagoon-like channels meander- 
ing tortuously enough between detached fields of the 
most prolific reed. The open expanses of water are 
called by the natives so many " rwerus " or lakes ; 
the lagoons connecting them and the reed-covered 
water are known by the name of "ingezi." Lake Win- 
dermere is one of these rwerus, and is nine miles in 
extreme length and from one to three miles in width. 
By boiling point Stanley ascertained it to be at an alti- 
tude of 3760 feet above the ocean, and about 320 
feet above Lake Victoria. 

On returning from his voyage of exploration, he 
resolved on an overland journey to the hot springs of 
Mtagata, which have obtained considerable renown 
throughout all the neighboring countries for their heal- 
ing properties. Two days' severe marching towards 



400 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

the north brought them to a deep, wooded gorge 
wherein the hot springs are situated. Here they dis- 
covered a most astonishing variety of plants, herbs, 
trees and bushes; for here Nature was in her most 
astonishing mood. She shot forth her products with 
such vigor that each plant seemed to strangle the other 
for lack of room. They so clambered over one an- 
other that small hills of brush were formed, the lowest 
in the heap stifled by the uppermost, and through the 
heaps thus formed tall invules shot forth an arrow's 
flight into the upper air, with globes of radiant, green 
foliage upon their stem-like crowns. 

These springs issued in streams from the base of a 
rocky hill, and when Fahrenheit's thermometer was 
placed in the water, the mercury rose to 1 29 degrees. 
Four springs bubbled upward from the ground through 
a depth of dark, muddy sediment, and had a tempera- 
ture of no degrees. These were the most favored 
by the natives, and the curative reputation of the 
springs was based on the properties of the water. 

Stanley says that he camped there for three days, 
and made free use of a reserved spring ; but excepting 
unusual cleanliness, he could not conscientiously say 
that he enjoyed any benefit from the water. 

Having thoroughly explored the valley of the Ka- 
gera, noting and locating the minor lakes, mineral 
springs, and other features of the topography of this 
hitherto unknown region, and after completing a map 
of the Victoria Nyanza, which will prove one of the 
most important contributions ever made to geographi- 
cal science, solving as it does one of its greatest prob- 
lems, Stanley commenced his southward march to 




THE HOT SPRINGS OF MTAGATA, 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 4OI 

UjijI, on Lake Tanganyika, the place where he was so 
fortunate as to discover the lon^-lost Livinorstone. 

He left the capital of Karagwe with brave intentions 
and high aspirations. He had discovered that the 
Kagera River formed a great lake about eighty miles 
in length and from five to fourteen miles in breadth, 
and that at Kishakka the Kagera was still a powerful, 
deep-flowing river; and curious reports from natives 
and Arabs had created curious ideas within his mind 
as to the source of this noble river. Imbued with the 
thought that by journeying a sufficient distance along 
its right bank he might discover this source, he made 
ample preparations for the crossing of a wide wilder- 
ness, packed ten days' provisions of grain on the shoul- 
ders of each man of the expedition, and on the 27th of 
March, 1876, set out for the uninhabited land. 

After travelling for six days he reached Ubimba, the 
frontier of Karagwe, where, behind a ridge which 
extends between Ubimba and the lake, he saw the 
extreme south end of the lake he had so long followed, 
and noticed a decided change in the formation of the 
broad valley of the Kagera. The mountainous ridges 
bounding the western shore of the Kagera, which, 
extending from Mpororo south, continue on a south by 
west course, became broken and confused In southern 
Kishakka, and were penetrated from the northwest by 
a wide valley, through which issued into the Kagera a 
lake-like river called Akanyaru. Southwest was seen 
the course of the Kagera, which, above the confluence 
of the Akanyaru with It, was only a swift-flowing river 
of no very great depth or breadth. Such a river 
might well be created by the drainage of eastern 



402 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Urundi and western Ubba. His attention was drawn 
from the Kagera to the lake-Hke stream of Akanyaru, 
and several natives stated to him while looking toward 
it that it was an effluent of the Kagera, and that it 
emptied into the Albert Nyanza. Such an extraordi- 
nary statement as this could not be received and trans- 
mitted as a fact without being able to corroborate It on 
his own authority, and exploration of the north of the 
Akanyaru proved that the Akanyaru is not an efflu- 
ent but an affluent of the Kagera. 

Beyond the mouth of the Akanyuru, Stanley found 
it was impossible for him to go, owing to the deter- 
mined hostility and opposition of the natives on the 
right and left banks of the river. Forced to abandon 
the exploration of Lake Albert from this side of the 
Tanganyika, he marched in the direction of Ubagwe, 
in western Unyamwezi, about fifteen days' journey 
from Ujiji. He then proposed to proceed quickly to 
Ujljl, explore the Tanganyika in his boat, and from 
Uzlgo strike north to the Albert; and if that road 
should not be open, to cross the Tanganyika and travel 
north by a circuitous course to effect his purpose — the 
exploration of Lake Albert. 

The account of his arrival at Ujiji, the scene of his 
first great success — the finding of Livingstone — is cer- 
tainly characteristic, if not truly pathetic. "At noon 
of the 27th of May, the bright waters of the Tan- 
ganyika broke upon the view, and compelled me,'* says 
Stanley, " to linger admiringly for a while, as I did on 
the day I first beheld them. By 3 P. M. we were in 
Ujiji. Mulnl, Mohammed bin Gharib, Sultan bin Kas- 
sim, and Khamis the Baluch, greeted me kindly. Mo- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 403 

hammed bin Sail was dead. Nothing" was changed 
much, except the ever-changing mud tembes of the 
Arabs. The square or plaza where I met David Liv- 
ingstone in November, 1871, is now occupied by large 
tembes. The house where he and I lived has long 
ago been burnt down, and in its place there remain 
only a few embers and a hideous void. The lake ex- 
pands with the same grand beauty before the eyes as 
we stand in the market place. The opposite moun- 
tains of Goma have the same blue-black color, for they 
are everlasting, and the Liuche River continues its 
course as brown as ever just east and south of Ujiji. 
The surf is still as restless, and the sun as bright; the 
sky retains its glorious azure, and the palms all their 
beauty ; but the grand old hero, whose presence once 
filled Ujiji with such absorbing interest for me was 
gone !" 




CHAPTER XXII. 

WESTWARD ALONG THE CONGO TO THE ATLANTIC. 

Surveys Lake Tanganyika — Settles the Question of the River Luguka — An Out- 
break of Small-pox and Fever in Ujiji — Causes Stanley to Depart — Pushes his 
way along the Right Bank of the Lualala to the Nyangwe — Overland Through 
Uregga — Brought to a Stand-still by an Impenetrable Forest — Crosses over to 
the Left Bank — Northeast Uskusa — Dense Jungles — Opposed and Harassed by 
Hostile Savages — Assailed Night and Day — The Progress of the Expedition 
almost Hopeless — Deserted by Forty of his Porters — Takes to the River as the 
only Chance to Escape — Pass the Cataracts by Cutting a Road through Thir- 
teen Miles of Dense Forest for the Passage of the Lady Alice and the Canoes — 
Almost Incessantly Fighting the Savages — Threatened with Starvation — Three 
Days without Food — Meet with a Friendly Tribe with whom they Barter for 
Supplies — Many Falls and Furious Rapids — Again Attacked by a more War- 
like Tribe, armed with Firearms — Almost Starved and Worn-Out with Fatigue, 
reaches Isangila — Leaves the River — Terrible Sufferings of his People — Relief 
from Embomma — Reach Embomma — Kabinda and Londa — Sail for Cape of 
Good Hope — Thence Return by Steamer to Zanzibar — Close of the Expedition. 

Here Stanley fitted together and launched his ex- 
ploring boat, the Lady Alice, in which he had already 
rendered such excellent service to the cause of geo- 
graphical science on Lake Victoria Nyanza, and com- 
menced his survey of Lake Tanganyika. Starting 
from Ujiji, he made a complete circumnavigation of 
the lake, and verified many observations of that por- 
tion which he had previously visited and explored in 
company with Dr. Livingstone. 

Stanley, in the course of this survey, settled the 
question of the river Luguka, which Cameron had 

404 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 405 

conjectured was the outlet of Lake Tanganyika 
towards the west, and into the system of lakes which 
form the head waters of the Lualala, or Lomame of 
Livingstone. According to Stanley, Cameron was 
both right and wrong with regard to the character of 
the Luguka River. When Stanley saw it, it was only 
a creek, running inland through a deep depression, 
which extended westward for a great distance. But 
the lake, by constantly increasing its area and raising 
in level, will eventually, in Stanley's opinion, find an 
outlet through the Luguka River. 

The outbreak of small-pox and fever in the Ujiji 
district, however, obliged Stanley to make preparations 
for an immediate departure. With his followers he 
pushed his way along the right bank of the Lualala to 
the Nyangwe. This was the most northerly point 
reached by Cameron, when the latter attempted to 
solve the mystery of the Congo and its identity with the 
main drainage line of the Lualala basin. 

The party travelled overland through Uregga, and 
after an arduous march of many days through a coun- 
try filled with many difficulties, being compelled to 
transport every pound of supplies of all kinds on the 
shoulders of his men, and even to carry along in a 
similar manner the exploring boat, the Lady Alice, in 
sections, Stanley at last found himself brought to a 
standstill, further progress being rendered utterly im- 
practicable owing to the extreme density of the for- 
est. He then crossed over to the left bank, and 
continued his journey, passing through Northeast Us- 
kusa ; but here the difficulties were scarcely less than 
those encountered on the other side. The jungles 



4o6 Stanley's story; or, 

were still so dense and the fatigues of the march, owing 
to the obstacles to be overcome, so harassing, that It 
seemed Impossible to break through the tremendous 
barrier of the forest. The horrors of his position were 
still further augmented by the party being opposed at 
every step by the hostile cannibal savages, who filled 
the woods and poured Into the devoted little band 
flights of poisoned arrows, killing and wounding many 
of their number. Every attempt to propitiate them, 
or even to retaliate and drive them off, was of no avail, 
as the natives kept under cover. Even the famous 
"elephant" gun, which It will be remembered Stanley 
found so useful as a "propitiator" In the earlier stages 
of his journey from Zanzibar, was now powerless. 

There was no cessation of the fighting, which was 
kept up day and night, any attempt at camping merely 
having the effect of concentrating the enemy and of 
rendering their fire more deadly. The march was a 
succession of charges In rude skirmishing order by 
an advance guard engaged in clearing the road for the 
main body, while a rear guard in like manner covered 
the retreat. In fact, the progress of the party soon be- 
came almost a hopeless task. 

To Increase still further his troubles, and render his 
position more deplorable, the porters whom Stanley 
had engaged from Nyangwe, one hundred and forty 
In number, deserted In a body, being so panic-stricken 
by the terrors of the forest and fatal effects of the 
fighting that they firmly believed the entire party were 
doomed to destruction. No sooner did the hostile 
savages become aware of this defection, and that the 
ranks of Stanley's party had been so materially 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 407 

thinned, than they made a grand charge upon them, 
expecting to completely crush them. But Stanley 
organized a desperate resistance, and after a severe 
and bloody struggle succeeded in driving them off for 
a short time, sufficient to allow him to adopt measures 
for an escape from their critical situation. 

There was but one way of escape, and that was to 
take to the river. With the Lady Alice as a last re- 
liance, and good canoes for the party, Stanley thought 
they would have a much better chance to elude their 
savage foes, and to make some advance toward their 
destination. ^ 

Although Stanley found that he had now a decided 
advantage, still the day's progress was but a repetition 
of the previous day's struggle. The fighting con- 
tinued to be as desperate as ever while pushing down 
the river, and before many days he encountered a fresh 
and most formidable obstacle in findinor the river inter- 
rupted by a series of great cataracts not far apart, 
and just north and south of the equator. In order to 
pass these the expedition was compelled to cut a road 
through thirteen miles of dense forest, and to drag the 
canoes and the Lady Alice overland. This enormous 
labor entailed the most exhausting efforts, and the men 
had frequently to lay down the axe and drag ropes 
and seize their rifles to defend themselves against the 
furious onslaught of their savage enemy, who still re- 
lentlessly pursued them. 

At last, however, the passage of the cataract was 
accomplished, and the party again embarked on the 
river, enjoying a long breathing pause and comparative 
security from attack. 



4o8 Stanley's story; or, 

Notwithstanding the incessant fighting which he had 
to go through, Stanley still lost no opportunity of not- 
ing the interesting changes and physical characteristics 
of the route, so cool and self-possessed was he under 
difficulties which would have daunted most men. At 
two degrees of north latitude he notes that the course 
of the Lualala swerved from its almost northerly 
course to the northwestward, to the westward, and 
then to the southwestward, developing into a broad 
stream, varying in width from two to ten miles, and 
studded with islands. 

To avoid the savage enemy, who was still in pursuit, 
Stanley's little fleet passed between these islands, 
taking advantage of the cover. 

In this way they succeeded in making a progress of 
many miles without being molested; but being cut off 
from supplies in the middle of this great river, they 
were threatened with starvation. For three whole days 
they were absolutely without food of any kind; and at 
last, driven desperate, Stanley determined to make for 
the mainland, preferring to die at the hands of the ene- 
my, if need be, rather than from hunger on the river. 

By the singular good fortune which seems to have 
always attended him, he found a tribe of natives who 
were acquainted with trade, and who were willing to 
sell the provisions so sorely needed. 

At this place the river was called " Ikuta ya Congo,'* 
and thence forward the name Lualala disappears, being 
replaced as the river approaches the Atlantic by the 
name of "Kwango " and " Zoure." 

Rested and refreshed, Stanley resumed his journey 
from this point, following the left bank of the river; 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 409 

but In three days after leaving the friendly village he 
found himself in the country of a powerful tribe whose 
warriors were armed with muskets, and who disputed 
his passage, refusing all attempts at conciliation. Here 
for the first time since leaving Nyangwe, Stanley 
found himself opposed to an enemy of equal footing 
as to arms. No sooner was his approach discovered 
than the enemy manned fifty-four canoes and put off 
from the bank of the river to attack him. For twelve 
miles down the river the battle raged, and though the 
expedition came out of the conflict with comparatively 
small loss, considering the severity of the combat, it 
was an escape rather than a victory. This was the 
last save one of thirty-two attacks upon Stanley's 
party after leaving Nyangwe. 

The Lualala, or Congo, as it runs through the great 
basin which lies between 16° and 17° east longitude, 
has an uninterrupted course of over 700 miles, with 
magnificent affluents, especially on the southern side. 
Thence, clearing the broad belt of mountains between 
the great basin of the Atlantic Ocean, the river de- 
scends about thirty falls and furious rapids, to the great 
river between the falls of Yellala and the Atlantic. 

Stanley's losses during this long and terrible jour- 
ney across the continent were fearfully severe. From 
Isangila, which he had reached on July 31, 1877, Stan- 
ley left the river, as the object of the journey had been 
attained — the connection of the great river of Living- 
stone with that of the Congo of Tuckey. 

The announcement of this fact — the abandonment 
of the river — gave great delight to Stanley's people. 
*'At sunset," says Stanley, "we lifted the brave boat, 



41 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

after her adventurous journey across Africa, and car- 
ried her to the summit of some rocks about five hun- 
dred yards north of the fall, to be abandoned to her 
fate. Three years before Messenger of Teddington 
had commenced her construction ; two years previous 
to this date she was coasting the bluffs of Usongora 
on Lake Victoria ; twelve months later she was com- 
pleting her last twenty miles of circumnavigation of 
Lake Tanganyika, and on the 31st July, 1877, after a 
journey of nearly 7000 miles up and down broad 
Africa, she was consigned to her resting-place above 
Isangila cataract, to bleach and to rot to dust!" 

al» ^» »£• *!• «l* •!• *1* •£• 

*!• »t* •!* ij^ •X» •!• *I» ffi 

" A wayworn, feeble, and suffering column were we," 
says Stanley, " when, on the ist of August, we filed 
across the rocky terrace of Isangila and sloping plain, 
and strode up the ascent to the table-land. Nearly 
forty men filled the sick list with dysentery, ulcers, and 
scurvy, and the victims of the latter disease were 
steadily increasing. Yet withal I smiled proudly when 
I saw the brave hearts cheerily respond to my encour- 
aging cries. A few, however, would not believe that 
within five or six days they should see Europeans. 
They disdained to be considered so credulous, but at 
the same time they granted that the * master ' was 
quite right to encourage his people with promises of 
speedy relief. 

" So we surmounted the table-land, but we could not 
bribe the wretched natives to guide us to the next 
village. Ever and anon, as we rose above the ridged 
swells, we caught a glimpse of the wild river on 
whose bosom we had so long floated, still white and 



THROUGH THE WTLDS OF AFRICA. 4I I 

foaming, as It rushed on impetuously seaward through 
the sombre defile. 

" An hour afterwards we were camped on a bit of 
level plateau to the south of the villages of Ndambi 
Mbongo. A strong healthy man would reach Embom- 
ma In three days. Three days ! Only three days off 
from food — from comforts— luxuries even ! Ah me ! 

"The next morning we lifted our weakened limbs 
for another march. And such a march ! — the path 
all thickly strewn with splinters of suet-colored quartz, 
which increased the fatigue and pain. The old men 
and the three mothers, with their young infants born 
at the cataracts of Massassa and Zinga, and another 
near the market town of Manyanga, in the month of 
June, suffered greatly. Then might be seen that af- 
fection for one another which appealed to my sym- 
pathies, and endeared them to me still more. Two of 
the younger men assisted each of the old, and the hus- 
bands and fathers lifted their infants on their shoulders 
and tenderly led their wives along. 

" Up and down the desolate and sad land wound 
the poor, hungry caravan. Bleached whiteness of 
ripest grass, grey rock-piles here and there, looming 
up solemn and sad in their greyness, a thin grove of 
trees now and then visible on the heights and in the 
hollows — such were the scenes that with every uplift of 
a ridge or rising crest of a hill met our hungry eyes. 
Eight miles our strength enabled us to make, and then 
we camped in the middle of an uninhabited valley, 
where we were supplied with water from the pools which 
we discovered in the course of a dried-up stream." 

The experiences of the third day were but a repetl- 



412 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

tion of the previous one, and by the close of that day 
they had reached the settlement of Nsanda. Here, 
through the aid of the chief, who furnished him with 
two messengers to accompany Uledi and Kacheche to 
Embomma, as bearers, Stanley wrote and sent a letter 
asking for immediate relief in the shape of food. On 
the 5 th the expedition resumed its march, and at 3 
o'clock P. M. covered a further distance of twelve 
miles, reaching the village of Mbinda. On the 6th, 
they were aroused for a further effort and at 9 o'clock 
A. M. reached Banza Mbuko. 

" Ah ! in what part of all the Japhetic world would 
such a distressed and woeful band as we were then 
have been regarded with such hard, steel-cold eyes ?" 
writes Stanley. " Yet not one word of reproach issued 
from the starving people ; they threw themselves upon 
the ground with an indifference begotten of despair 
and misery. They did not fret nor bewail aloud the 
torture^ of famine, nor vent the anguish of their 
pinched bowels In cries, but with stony resignation 
surrendered themselves to rest under the scant shade 
of some dwarf acacia or sparse bush. Now and then 
I caught the wail of an infant and the thin voice of a 
starving mother, or the petulant remonstrance of an el- 
der child ; but the adults remained still and apparently 
lifeless, each contracted within the exclusiveness of in- 
dividual suffering." 

In this condition these people were found by Uledi 
and Kacheche who had returned from Embomma 
with relief in the shape of provisions, forwarded through 
bearers, rapidly despatched by the proprietors of the 
English factory into whose hand Stanley's letter had 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 413 

fallen. And it may be readily imagined what a 
change was wrought in the camp by the timely arrival 
of these provisions. 

As to Stanley, he speaks for himself: "With pro- 
found tenderness Kacheche handed to me the myste- 
rious bottles, watching my face the while with his 
sharp detective eye as I glanced at the labels, by which 
the cunning rogue read my pleasure. Pale ale ! 
Sherry ! Port wine ! Champagne ! Several loaves of 
bread — wheaten bread, sufficient for a week. Two pots 
of butter. A packet of tea ! Coffee ! White loaf 
sugar ! Sardines and salmon ! Plum pudding ! Cur- 
rant, gooseberry, and raspberry jam ! 

" The gracious God be praised forever ! The long 
war we had maintained against famine and the siege 
of woe were over, and my people and I rejoiced in 
plenty ! It was only an hour before we had been living 
on the recollections of the few peanuts and green 
bananas we had consumed in the morning ; but now, 
in an instant, we were transported into the presence of 
the luxuries of civilization. Never did gaunt Africa 
appear so unworthy and so despicable before my eyes 
as now, when imperial Europe rose before my delighted 
eyes and showed her boundless treasures of life, and 
blessed me with her stores." 

On the 9th August, 1877, the 999th day from the 
date of his departure from Zanzibar, he prepared him- 
self to greet the van of Civilization. He was met on 
the road by an escort of Europeans, residents of 
Boma, who accorded him a gracious welcome to the 
town. Three little banquets were given him, and he 
was generously toasted by everybody. 



4-14 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

On the nth, at noon, the expedition embarked on 
the Kabinda, an English steamer, for the town of Ka- 
binda. " A few hours later," says Stanley, " and we 
were gliding through the broad portal into the ocean, 
the blue domain of Civilization ! 

" Turning to take a farewell glance at the mighty 
river on whose brown bosom we had endured so 
greatly, I saw it approach, awed and humbled, the 
threshold of the water immensity, to whose Immeasur- 
able volume and illimitable expanse, awful as had been 
its power and terrible as had been its fury, Its flood 
was but a drop. And I felt my heart suffused with 
purest gratitude to Him whose hand had protected us, 
and who had enabled us to pierce the Dark Continent 
from east to west, and to trace its mightiest river to its 
ocean bourne." 

The expedition, after a stay of eight days at Ka- 
binda, was kindly taken on board the Portuguese gun- 
boat Tamega to San Paulo de Loanda. From thence 
through the kindness and courtesy of the English 
officers of the Royal Navy, who had placed H. M. S. 
Industry at Stanley's disposal, the expedition was 
given passage to Cape Town. 

On arriving at Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope, 
on the 2 1st of October, Stanley was agreeably sur- 
prised by a most genial letter, signed by Commodore 
Francis William Sullivan, inviting him to the Admiralty 
House as his guest, and who, during the entire stay 
of the party at the Cape, extended the most hearty 
courtesy and hospitality. He had also made prepa- 
rations for transporting the entire expedition to Zanzi- 
bar, when a telegram from the Lords of the British 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 415 

Admiralty was received authorizing him to provide- 
for the transmission of Stanley's followers to their 
homes. 

On the 6th of November, H. M. S. Industry was 
fully equipped and ready for her voyage to T2LXi7}^2LX. 
Fourteen days later the palmy island of Zanzibar hove 
into sight, and in the afternoon the steamer was bear- 
ing straight for the port. 

Of the return home, and the final scene which closed 
this wonderful expedition, we must let Stanley speak: 
" As I looked on the Wangwana, and saw the pleasure 
which now filled every soul, I felt myself amply re- 
warded for sacrificing several months to see them 
home. The sick had all but one recovered, and they 
had improved so much in appearance that few, igno- 
rant of what they had been, could have supposed that 
these were the living skeletons that had reeled from 
sheer weakness through Boma. 

" The only patient who had baffled our endeavors 
to restore her to health was the woman Muscati, un- 
fortunate Safeni's wife. Singular to relate, she lived 
to be embraced by her father, and the next morning 
died in his arms, surrounded by her relatives and 
friends. But all the others were blessed with redun- 
dant health — robust, bright, and happy. 

" And now the well-known bays and inlets and 
spicy shores and red-tinted bluffs of Mbwenni enrap- 
tured them. Again they saw what they had often 
despaired of seeing : the rising ridge of Wilezu, at 
the foot of which they knew were their homes and 
their tiny gardens ; the well-known features of Shan- 
gani and Melindi ; the tall square mass of the Sultan's 

32 



41 6 Stanley's story; or, 

palace. Each outline, each house, from the Sandy 
Point to their own Ngambu, each well-remembered 
bold swell of land, with its glories of palm- and mango- 
tree, was to them replete with associations of by-gone 
times. 

" The ship was soon emptied of her strange passen- 
gers. Captain Sullivan, of the London, came on board 
and congratulated me on my safe arrival, and then I 
went on shore to my friend Mr. Augustus Sparhawk's 
house. 

" Four days of grace I permitted myself to procure 
the thousands of rupees required to pay the people 
for their services. Messages had also been sent to 
the relatives of the dead, requesting them to appear 
at Mr. Sparhawk's, prepared to make their claims 
good by the mouths of three witnesses. 

*' On the fifth morning the people — men, women, 
and children — of the Anglo-American Expedition, at- 
tended by hundreds of friends, who crowded the 
street and the capacious rooms of the Bertram Agency, 
began to receive their well-earned dues. The women, 
thirteen in number, who had borne the fatigues of the 
long, long journey, who had transformed the stern 
camp in the depths of the wilds into something resem- 
bling a village in their own island, who had encour- 
aged their husbands to continue in their fidelity despite 
all adversity, were well rewarded. 

"The children of the chiefs who had accompanied 
us from Zanzibar to the Atlantic, and who, by their 
childish, careless prattle, had often soothed me in mid- 
Africa, and had often caused me to forget my respon- 
sibilities for the time, were not forgotten. Neither 



THROUGH rHE WILDS OF AFRICA. 4I7 

were the tiny infants—ushered into the world amid 
the dismal and tragic scenes of the cataract lands, and 
who, with their eyes wide open with wonder, now 
crowed and crooned at the gathering of happy men 
and elated women about them — omitted in this final 
account and reckoning. 

*' The second pay-day was devoted to hearing the 
claims for vv^ages due the faithful dead. Poor faithful 
souls ! With an ardor and a fidelity unexpected, they 
had followed me to the very death. True, negro na- 
ture had often asserted Itself; but It was, after all, but 
human nature. They had never boasted that they 
were heroes ; but they exhibited truly heroic stuff while 
coping w^ith the varied terrors of the hitherto untrod- 
den and apparently endless wilds of broad Africa. 

" The female relatives filed in. With each name of 
the dead, old griefs were remembered. The poignant 
sorrow I felt — as the fallen were named after each suc- 
cessive conflict in those dark days, never to be forgot- 
ten by me — was revived. Sad and subdued were the 
faces of those I saw — as sad and subdued as my own 
feelings. With such sympathies between us we soon 
arrived at a satisfactory understanding. Each woman 
was paid without much explanation required — one 
witness was sufficient. Parents and true brothers were 
not difficult to identify. The settlement of the claims 
lasted five days, and then — the Anglo-American Expe- 
dition was no more.'* 

On the 13th of December, Stanley sailed from Zan- 
zibar for Aden, on board the British India Steam Nav- 
igation Company's steamer Pachumba. His late fol- 
lowers had all left their homes early in the morning 



41 8 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

that they might be certain to arrive in time to witness 
his departure. Mr. Stanley says of them: "When 
I was about to step into the boat, the brave, faithful 
fellows rushed before me and shot the boat into the 
sea, and then lifted me up on their heads and carried 
me through the surf into the boat. We shook hands 
twenty times twenty I think, and then at last the boat 
started. I saw them consult together, and presently 
saw them rush down the beach and seize a great 
twenty-ton lighter, which they soon manned and rowed 
after me. They followed me thus to the steamer, and 
a deputation of them came on board, headed by the 
famous Uledi, the coxswain ; Kacheche, the chief de- 
tective ; Robert, my indispensable factotum ; Zaidi, the 
chief, and Wadi Rehani, the storekeeper, to inform 
me that they still considered me as their master, and 
that they would not leave Zanzibar until they received 
a letter from me announcing my safe arrival- in my 
own country. I had, they said, taken them round all 
Africa to bring them back to their homes, and they 
must know that I had reached my own land before 
they would go to seek new adventures on the Con- 
tinent, and — simple, generous souls ! — that if I wanted 
their help to reach my country they would help me ! 
" They were sweet and sad moments, those of part- 
ing. What a long, long and true friendship was here 
sundered! Through what strange vicissitudes of life 
had they not followed me ! What wild and varied scenes 
had we not seen together. What a noble fidelity 
these untutored souls had exhibited ! The chiefs were 
those who had followed me to Ujiji in 1871 ; they had 
been witnesses of the joy of Livingstone at the sight of 




'rfc»i^.r%A' 



THE FACE OF A WANGWANA. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 4I9 

me ; they were the men to whom I trusted the safe- 
guard of Livingstone on his last and fatal journey, 
who had mourned by his corpse at Muilala, and borne 
the illustrious dead to the Indian Ocean. 

" And in a flood of sudden recollection, all the 
stormy period here ended rushed in upon my mind — 
the whole panorama of danger and tempest through 
which these gallant fellows had so staunchly stood by 
me — these gallant fellows now parting from me. 
Rapidly, as in some apocalyptic vision, every scene 
of strife with Man and Nature through which these 
poor men and women had borne me company, and so- 
laced me by the simple sympathy of common suffer- 
ing, came hurrying across my memory: for each face 
before me was associated with some adventure or some 
peril, reminded me of some triumph or of some loss. 
What a wild, weird retrospect it was, that mind's 
flash over the troubled past! So like a troublous 
dream ! 

" And for years and years to come, in many homes 
in Zanzibar, there will be told the great story of our 
journey, and the actors in it will be heroes among 
their kith and kin. For me, too, they are heroes— 
these poor ignorant children of Africa — for, from the 
first deadly struggle in savage Iturue to the last stag- 
gering rush into Embomma, they had rallied to my 
voice like veterans, and in the hour of need they had 
never failed me. And thus, aided by their willing 
hands and by their loyal hearts, the expedition had been 
successful, and the three great problems of the Dark 
Continent's geography had been fairly solved ?" 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE WONDERFUL RESOURCES OF THE CONGO. 

The Messengers of King Leopold IL of Belgium — Meet Stanley at Marseilles^ 
France — Object of the Interview — Another Expedition to Africa, to Explore 
the Congo in the Interests of Commerce — TheComite d' Etudes du Haut Congo 
— Object of the Expedition Defined — Stanley Returns to Africa — ^Arrival at the 
Mouth of the Congo — Commercial Possibilities of the Congo Basin — Railways 
Necessary — The Population — Statistics of Trade — Products of the Immense 
Forests — Marvellous Beauty of the Country — Vegetable Products — Palms— 
India-Rubber Plants — The Orchilla — Redwood Powder — ^Vegetable Fibres- 
Skins of Animals — Ivory — The Climate — Importance of the Expedition, both 
Commercially and Politically — Stanley Returns to England. 

The Dark Continent had been traversed from east 
to west, its great lakes, the Victoria Nyanza and the 
Tanganyika, had been circumnavigated, and the 
Congo River had been traced from Nyangwe to the 
Atlantic Ocean. The members of the late exploring 
expedition had been taken to their homes, the living 
had been worthily rewarded, and the widows and or 
phans had not been neglected. 

When Stanley finally reached Europe in January, 

1878, slowly recovering from the effects of famine and 

fatigue endured on that long journey, little did he 

imagine that before the close of the same year he 

should be preparing another expedition for the banks 

of that river on which he had suffered so greatly. But 

on arriving at the Marseilles railway station, in France, 

he was met by two commissioners from His Majesty, 

the King of the Belgians, Leopold II., who informed 

420 



THROUGH THE \TILDS OF AFRICA. 42 1 

him that the King proposed doing something substan- 
tial for Africa, and that he expected him to assist him 
in the work. To this Stanley's reply was : " I am so 
sick and weary that I cannot think with patience of any 
suggestion that I should personally conduct another 
expedition. Six months hence, perhaps, I should view 
things differendy; but at present I cannot think of 
anything more than a long rest and sleep." 

However, after having enjoyed a season of quiet 
rest, regaining his wonted strength and health, upon the 
continent, during which time he became the recipient 
of many honors wherever he went, he was induced by 
the society called Comlte d'Etudes du Haut Congo of 
Belgium, to undertake another expedition Into Africa 
— this one directed to a survey and exploration of the 
river Congo. 

The object of this expedition was defined by the 
society In these words : 

" Within the vast basin known in geographical par- 
lance as the basin of the Congo there is a vast field 
lying untouched by the European merchant and about 
three-fourths unexplored by the geographical explorer. 
For the most part it is peopled by ferocious savages, 
devoted to abominable cannibalism and wanton mur- 
der of Inoffensive people ; but along the great river 
towards the Livingstone Falls there dwell numerous 
amiable tribes who would gladly embrace the arrival 
of the European merchant, and hasten to him with 
their rich produce to exchange for Manchester cloths, 
Venetian beads, brass, wire, hardware arid cutlery, and 
such other articles as generally find favor with friendly 
Africans. 



422 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

" Our purpose Is threefold — philanthropic, scientific^ 
as well as commercial. It is philanthropic, inasmuch 
as our principal aim is to open the interior by wean- 
ing the tribes below and above from that suspicious 
and savage state which they are now in, and to 
rouse them up to give material aid voluntarily. Our 
purpose is also scientific, because we intend to make 
a systematic survey of that country lying between the 
Stanley Pool and Boma, either on the north or the 
south side of the Congo, and to determine with exacti- 
tude the positions of all important towns and villages, 
and all prominent points which shall be of interest to 
the geographer and the merchant. Our aims are com- 
mercial also, because we intend to experiment how far 
people may venture into commercial relationship with 
the tribes above, by Inviting them to exchange such 
products as they may possess for the manufactured 
goods of civilized States." 

On the 1 2th of August, 1877, Stanley had arrived 
at Banana Point, after crossing Africa and descending 
Its greatest rivers. On the 14th of August, 1879, two 
years later, he again arrived before the mouth of this 
river to ascend It, with the novel mission of " sowing 
along its banks civilized settlements, to peacefully con- 
quer and subdue it, to remould It In harmony with 
modern ideas into National States, within whose limits 
the European merchant shall go hand in hand with the 
dark African trader, and justice and law and order 
shall prevail, and murder and lawlessness and the 
cruel barter of slaves shall forever cease." 

And what have been the results of this second explo- 
ration of the mighty Congo ? Want of space will not 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRIC... 423 

permit us to follow the fortunes of Stanley in the 
course of his ascent of the great river, of the new 
discoveries made, and of the complete survey he made 
of its tortuous line ; but we shall give a brief outline of 
the great work he performed, and an account of the 
wonderful resources which he has shown this remark- 
able region of country to possess. 

On the commercial possibilities of this region, Stan- 
ley's recent communications show no change as to his 
views of African promises to commercial enterprise. 

He holds that there is less sickness by half in the 
Congo basin, even in its present unprepared condition, 
than there is in the bottom lands of Arkansas. The 
great basins of the Nile, Congo, Niger and Shari, he 
thinks, furnish fine opportunities for commercial ex- 
ploit. But these require railways to connect their up- 
per basins with the sea. About 800 miles of railroad, 
he says, properly directed, would open to the world of 
commerce 22,600 miles of river bank of these four 
streams. But $17,000,000 of capital would be re- 
quired to build this railway. The area of country and 
the masses of population which it would make imme- 
diately accessible, according to careful calculation, are : 
Congo basin, 1,090,000 statute square miles, 43,000,000 
population ; Nile basin, 660,000 square miles, 23,760,- 
000 population ; Niger basin, 440,000 square miles, 
8,800,000 population ; Shari basin, 180,000 square 
miles, 5,400,000 population. Total for four basins, 
2,370,000 square miles ; 80,960,000 population, or one- 
fourth more than the total population of the United 
States. 

The least explored portion of the African coast line, 



424 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

2900 miles long, is that from the Gambia to St. Paul de 
Loanda, which gives an annual trade of $160,000,000. 
The banks of these four rivers, if equally developed, 
ought to furnish a trade seven and a half times greater, 
or $1,200,000,000. The gross sum required to create 
this enormous trade is only $17,000,000. 

Supposing that a continent abounding with tropic 
produce, populated by 81,000,000 of working people, 
and showing a coast line of 22,600 miles in length, sud- 
denly rose from the bosom of the Atlantic, imagine 
the scramble for possession which would be made by 
the Powers. Yet here are four river basins offered to 
civilization at the rate of i ^ pence per acre, with an 
annual trade of over three shillings per acre almost 
guaranteed. Any two rich men in Great Britian, Bel 
gium, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portu 
gal or Sweden and Norway may combine together and 
build the Congo Railway. " I have a strong hope," 
said Stanley, " that Manchester will unite with Berlin, 
Paris and Brussels in the subscription of $3,000,000 to 
build this railway." The Congo basin, Stanley thinks, 
is much more promising than the Mississippi basin 
was previous to its development. 

" The forests on the banks of the Congo," he says, 
" are filled with precious redwood, lignum vitae, ma- 
hogany and fragrant gum trees. At their base may- 
be found inexhaustible quantities of fossil gum, with 
which the carriaofes and furniture of civilized countries 
are varnished. Their barks exude myrrh and frank- 
incense ; their foliage is draped with orchilla weed, 
useful for dye. The redwood, when cut down,- chipped 
and rasped, produces a deep crimson powder, giving 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 425 

a valuable coloring ; the creepers, which hang in fes- 
toons from tree to tree, are generally those from 
which india-rubber is produced ; the nuts of the oil- 
palm give forth a butter, while the fibres of others will 
make the best cordage. Among the wild shrubs are 
frequently found the coffee plant. In its plains, jun- 
gles and swamps luxuriate the elephant, whose teeth 
furnish ivory worth from eight shillings to eleven shil- 
lings per pound. If we speak of prospective advan- 
tages, the copper of Lake Superior is rivaled by that 
of the Kwiln-Niadi Valley and of Bembi. Rice, cot- 
ton, tobacco, maize, coffee, sugar and wheat would 
thrive equally well on the broad plains of the Congo. 
I have heard of gold and silver." 

And Stanley also gives the testimony of many 
others, who have traversed the regions of country 
bounding the course of the Congo. Tippoo Tib, the 
great Arab trader in the interior, who has traversed 
the southeast portion of this section, describes his as- 
tonishment at the density of the population. He had 
passed through several towns which took a couple of 
hours to traverse, told of the beauty of savannah, park, 
and prairie country he saw, and how the sight of the 
camp left in the morning might be seen from the 
evening camp after a six hours' march. 

Dr. Schweinfurth says : " From the Welle to the 
residence of the Monbuttu King, Munza, the way 
leads through a country of marvellous beauty, an 
almost unbroken line of the primitively simple dwell- 
ings extending on either side of the caravan route." 

"The vegetable productions of this section," says 
Stanley, " are rich and varied ; but until intercourse is 



426 Stanley's story; or, 

facilitated, little use will be made of them. Thih 
might be readily surmised from the country's bisection 
by the equatorial line, the ten months' rains, and the 
humid warmth which nourishes vegetation with ex- 
traordinary prolific power." 

The most remarkable among the vegetable growths 
are the palms, of which there are an immense variety ; 
but the most useful to commerce is the oil-palm. Its 
nut supplies the dark red palm-dil so well known 
on the west coast, while its kernel is valuable for oil- 
cake for cattle. Not a grove, nor an island scarcely, 
can be found without this beautiful and most useful 
palm ; in some places, such as the district between the 
lower Lumani and Congo, there are entire forests 
of it. 

The next most valuable product of the forest, as yet 
untouched in this region, is the india-rubber plant. 
There are three kinds of plants producing this article, 
but that which exudes from Euphorbia is not so elastic 
in quality, although it may have its uses. " On the 
islands of the Congo," says Stanley, '* which in the 
aggregate cover an area of 3000 square miles with 
800 square miles of the banks of the main river, I 
estimate that enough rubber could be collected in one 
year to pay for a Congo railway." 

Vast extents of forest are veiled with the orchilla 
moss. Between Iboko and Langa-Langa, Stanley saw 
a forest of about sixty miles in length draped with 
orchilla lying on the woods like a green veil. Every 
village contains its manufactured rolls of redwood 
powder, and few settlements between the equator and 
the Kwa could not furnish a few hundredweights at 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 427 

short notice. Every trading canoe floating on the 
upper Congo possesses among its salable wares a 
certain store of this universally-demanded article. 

" For purely tropical scenes," says Stanley, " I com- 
mend the verdurously rich isles in mid-Congo, between 
Iboko on the right bank and Mutembo on the left 
bank, with the intricate and recurrent river channels 
meandering between. There the rich verdure reflects 
the brightness of the intense sunshine in glistening 
velvet sheen from frond and leaf. The underwood 
presents varied colors, with their tufted tops or the 
climbing serpentine form of the llianes and their viny 
leaves. Each and all have their own separate and 
particular beauties of coloring that renders description 
impossible. At all times I believe the same refreshing 
gladness and vigor of tropical nature may be observed 
about this latitude. Some of the smallest islets seemed 
to be all aflame with crimson coloring, while the purple 
of the ipomaea and the gold and white of the jasmine 
and mimosa flowered, bloomed and diffused a sweet 
fragrance. Untainted by the marring hand of man, or 
by his rude and sacrilegious presence, these isles, 
blooming thus in their beautiful native innocence and 
grace, approached in aspect as near Eden's loveliness 
as anything I shall ever see on this side of Paradise. 
They are blessed with a celestial bounty of florid and 
leafy beauty, a fulness of vegetable life that cannot 
possibly be matched elsewhere save where soil with 
warm and abundant moisture and gracious sunshine 
are equally to be found in the same perfection. Not 
mere things of beauty alone were these isles. The 
palms were perpetual fountains of a sweet juice, which 

83 



428 Stanley's story; or, 

when effervescing affords delight and pleasure to man. 
The golden nuts of other trees furnish rich yellow 
fat, good enough for the kitchen of an epicure, when 
fresh. On the coast these are esteemed as an article 
of commerce. The luxuriant and endless lengths of 
calamus are useful for flooring and verandah mats, for 
sun-screens on river voyages, for temporary shelters 
on some open river terrace frequented by fishermen, 
for fish-nets and traps, for field baskets, market ham- 
pers, and a host of other useful articles, but more es- 
pecially for the construction of neat and strong houses, 
and fancy lattice-work. Such are the strong, cord-like 
creepers which hang in festoons and wind circuitously 
upward along the trunk of that sturdy tree. The 
pale white blossom which we see is the caoutchouc 
plant, of great value to commerce, and which some of 
these days will be industriously hunted by the natives 
of Iboko and Bolombo. For the enterprising trader, 
there is a ficus, with fleshy green leaves ; its bark is 
good for native cloth, and its soft, spongy fibre will be 
of some use in the future for the manufacture of pa- 
per. Look at the various palms crowding upon one 
another ! Their fibres, prepared by the dexterous na- 
tives of Bangala, will make the stoutest hawsers, the 
strength of which neither hemp, manilla fibre, nor jute 
can match ; it is as superior to ordinary cord-threads 
as silk is to cotton. See that soft, pale-green moss 
draping those tree-tops like a veil ! That is the or- 
chilla weed, from which a valuable dye is extracted. I 
need not speak of the woods, for the tall, dark forests 
that meet the eye on bank and isle seem to have no 
end. We are banqueting on such sights and odors 




THE AFRICAN CACTUS. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 429 

that few would believe could exist. We are like chil- 
dren ignorantly playing with diamonds. Such is the 
wealth of colors revealed every new moment to us, al- 
ready jaded with the gorgeousness of the tropic 
world." 

The vegetation of the upper Congo is also remark- 
able for the quantities of fibres it produces for the 
manufacture of paper, rope, basket-work, fine and 
coarse matting and grass cloths. 

In this region, among the many minor items availa- 
ble which commercial intercourse would teach the 
natives to employ profitably, are monkey, goat, ante- 
lope, buffalo, lion, and leopard skins ; the gorgeous 
feathers of the tropic birds, hippopotamus teeth, 
beeswax, frankincense, myrrh, tortoise-shell, cannabis 
saliva, and lastly, ivory, which to-day is considered the 
most valuable product. '' It may be presumed," says 
Stanley, " that there are about 200,000 elephants in 
about 15,000 herds in the Congo basin, each carrying, 
let us say, on an average fifty pounds weight of ivory 
in his head, which would represent, when collected and 
sold in Europe, ^5,000,000. 

** For climate," says Stanley, " the Mississippi Valley 
is superior ; but a large portion of the Congo basin, at 
present inaccessible to the immigrant, is blessed with 
a temperature under which Europeans may thrive and 
multiply. There is no portion of it where the Euro- 
pean trader may not fix his residence for years, and 
develop commerce to his profit with as little risk as is 
incurred in India." 

Thus we find Stanley has succeeded in solving the 
Congo problem. While other travellers have only 



430 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Speculated on the probable identity of the Lualala 
with the Congo, he has put the matter beyond a possi- 
ble doubt. To his deeds of discovery on the Nyanza 
and Tanganyika, which have already been recounted, 
Stanley has, by his second tour of the Congo, added a 
fresh and incomparable triumph which will forever 
link his name with the history of the continent that 
his irresistible zeal has done so much to open up to 
civilization. His explorations will also have most im- 
portant commercial and, it may be, political, results. 

Having traversed the entire length of the Congo as 
far as Vivi, and made several exploring detours from 
that point, together with discharging the duties of his 
mission, Stanley sailed for home, arriving at Plymouth, 
England, on July 29th, 1884. Four days later he pre- 
sented his report to His Majesty, the King of the Bel- 
gians, who was then spending the summer at Ostend. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

FOUNDING OF THE FREE CONGO STATE. 

The International Association seeks Recognition from Foreign Powers — Treaty 
between England and Portugal — Earl Granville — Claims of Portugal — Conces- 
sion of England — Protest of the United States — Opposition in England — King 
Leopold Obtains the Assistance of the German Chancellor and the Sympathies 
of the French Republic — Prince Bismarck Protests — Letter to Baron de Courcel, 
French Ambassador at Berlin — The Baron's Reply — France and Germany in 
Accord— -Call for a Conference of the Powers at Berlin — Conference Assembles 
— Prince Bismarck Opens the Conference with an Address Stating its Object — 
Mr. Stanley a Delegate — Asked to give his Views — Mr. Stanley's Suggestions — 
Deliberations of the Conference — Results of the Conference — Protocol Signed 
by all the Plenipotentiaries — The United States the first to Publicly Recognize 
the Flag of the Free Congo State — Honors to Mr. Stanley in Germany. 

The expedition of the Upper Congo and the Bureau 
of the Association had now performed their duties, but 
the Royal Founder of the State was compelled, in or- 
der to insure its prosperity and continuity, as the work 
advanced, to apply to the various Governments of Eu- 
rope and America for recognition, and for security and 
peaceful safeguards of its frontiers, to make treaties 
with France and Portugal, which would delimit the 
boundaries, and arrange with all of them for the pre- 
servation of neutrality. 

The Association was in possession of treaties made 
with over 450 independent African chiefs, whose rights 
would be conceded by all to have been Indisputable, 
since they held their lands by undisturbed occupation, 

431 



43 2 Stanley's story; or, 

by long ages of succession, by real divine right. Of 
their own free will, without coercion, but for substan- 
tial considerations, reserving only a few easy condi- 
tions, they had transferred their rights of sovereignty 
and of ownership to the Association. The time had 
arrived when a sufficient number of these had been 
made to connect the several miniature sovereignties 
into one concrete whole to present itself before the 
world for general recognition of its right to govern, 
and hold these in the name of an independent State, 
lawfully constituted according to the spirit and tenor 
of international law. 

In consequence of negotiations entered into between 
the British and Portuguese Governments, beginning 
November, 1882, and ending February 25th, 1884, a 
treaty was finally concluded, by which the whole of the 
southwest African coast between S. latitude 5° 12' 
and S. latitude 5° 18' was recognized by the British 
Government as Portuguese territory. This included 
the lower Congo, of course, by which the territory of 
the Association became excluded from the sea. The 
treaty was signed on the 26th of February, 1884, by 
Earl Granville on the part of Great Britain, and by 
Senhor Miguel Martins d' Antas on behalf of the 
Government of Portugal. 

Earl Granville however declared, previous to the 
signature of the treaty, that the acceptance by other 
Powers of the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was indis- 
pensable before it came into operation, and that there 
was reason to believe that this acceptance would be 
refused, which would necessarily delay the ratification. 

Heretofore the territory now proposed to be given 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 433 

up to Portugal, so far as Great Britain was concerned, 
had been regarded as neutral ; and the treaty, thus con- 
cluded, marked a radical change in British policy — for 
a long series of British Ministers had, during over half 
a century, peremptorily declined to recognize the Por- 
tuguese claims. 

When the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was published 
the European Powers, especially France and Germany, 
emphatically protested against it, and in England men 
of all shades of politics combined to denounce it, prin- 
cipally through a fear that the restrictions imposed 
upon trade in other colonies belonging to Portugal 
would be so severe as to render commerce impossible 
in the Congo region. 

The most signal protest came, however, from the 
United States Government. The United States Sen- 
ate also, on the loth of April, 1884, passed a resolu- 
tion authorizing the President to recognize the Inter- 
national African Association as a governing power on 
the Congo River. This recognition gave birth to 
new life of the Association, seriously menaced as its 
existence was by opposing interests and ambitions, 
and the following of this example by the European 
Powers subsequently affirmed and secured its place 
among sovereign States. This act, the result of the 
well-considered judgment of the American statesmen, 
was greatly criticised abroad, as was the participation 
of the United States in the Berlin Conference, to 
which it directly led up, by the press of America. It 
was an act well worthy of the Great Republic, not only 
as taking the lead in publicly recognizing and support- 
ing the great work of African civilization in history, 



434 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

and In promoting the extension of commerce, but of 
significant Import in view of its interest for the future 
weal of 7,000,000 people of African descent within its 
borders. 

The British Chambers of Commerce — notably those 
of Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow — resolutely 
opposed the treaty concluded with Portugal ; but with- 
al the strenuous opposition maintained to it in com- 
mercial circles and in the House of Commons, had not 
the Royal Founder of the Association obtained the 
assistance of the German Chancellor and the sym- 
pathies of the French Government, it is doubtful 
whether anything done In England would have suc- 
ceeded in averting the effectual seal being put upon 
enterprise in the Congo basin by this treaty. Much 
more liberal terms would be needed to tempt Congress 
within its borders than any provisions that the treaty 
contained. Some such arrangement as that made by 
the Congress of Vienna In 181 5, whereby liberty of 
navigation was proclaimed to the great rivers of Eu- 
rope, such as the Rhine and the Danube, would be 
necessary ; and now that an association had absorbed 
unto Itself hundreds of petty sovereignties along a 
large portion of it, and France had proceeded in the 
same manner to absorb other portions of the Congo 
banks, while Portugal pressed her claims to territories 
washed by the great African river, it was absolutely 
and imperatively Incumbent on the Powers to step 
forward and Impose such obligations on the riveraine 
Powers as would not imperil or strangle the commerce 
already thriving on the banks of the lower Congo. 

On the 7th of June, 1884, Prince Bismarck, in a 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 435 

communication to Count Munster, set forth his objec- 
tions to the Anglo-Portuguese treaty, and concluded 
with the following words : 

"In the interests of German commerce, therefore, 
I cannot consent that a coast of such importance, 
which has hitherto been free land, should be subjected 
to the Portuguese colonial system." 

In West African trade, Great Britain stood almost 
alone at one time. Her traders were busy on the 
Gambia, on the Roquelle, on the Gold Coast, at Lagos 
in the oil rivers, at Gaboon and Kabinda, and the 
Glasgow and Liverpool and Bristol merchants were 
represented by a host of agents, who had planted 
themselves at various points along the 2900 miles of 
coast ; but of late years, through the apathy of the 
English merchants, Germany, by her enterprise, had 
also established herself at various places, and great 
houses like that of Woerman's were looming upward, 
overtopping all individual English firms, which could 
number their factories by dozens and their agents by 
scores. Hamburg and Bremen were outrivalling 
Liverpool and Glasgow. Hence Germany had solid 
and substantial reasons for watching and jealously 
guarding her mercantile interests ; and France, aided 
by the energy and talents of Monsieur de Brazza, in 
territories beyond and contiguous to the Gaboon 
colony, naturally wished to establish herself beyond 
dispute in the districts acquired by the devotion and 
intelligence of her agents. German savants had ex- 
plored territories unclaimed by any Power; German 
merchants were honestly established at certain places 
on the West African coast ; out of the most Intelligent 



436 Stanley's story ; or, 

and enterprising of the sons of Germany twenty-four 
geographical societies had been formed, and a dozen 
colonial associations, besides African societies, were 
being constituted In Germany. Already Basclan, 
Gussfeldt, Peschuel Loesche, Buchner, Von Mechow, 
Pogge, Weissman, had been equipped by a German 
African Society, and it was preparing to despatch 
more. These facts were published in the reviews and 
magazines. There was no secrecy In the movement. 
All was honest and above-board, and all the world was 
told of the modest effort Germany was making to ex- 
pand Its colonial strength. 

Like the great statesman that he is. Prince Bismarck 
bent his genius to the creation of a sound system of 
colonial policy — not rashly, though to those without the 
orbit of his genius it might be supposed to be eccentric. 

On the 13th of September he wrote to Baron de 
Courcel, French Ambassador at Berlin : 

*' Like France, the German Government will observe 
a friendly attitude towards the Belgian enterprises on 
the banks of the Congo, owing to the desire enter- 
tained by the two Governments to secure to their 
countrymen freedom of trade throughout the whole of 
the future Congo States, and in districts which France 
holds on the river, and which she proposes to assimi- 
late to the liberal system which that State is expected 
to establish. These advantages will continue to be 
enjoyed by German subjects, and will be guaranteed 
to them In the event of France being called upon to 
exercise the right of preference accorded by the King 
of the Belgians In the contingency of the acquisitions 
made by the Congo Company being alienated!" 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 437 

Baron de Courcel, in reply, stated that he had not 
failed to convey to his Government Prince Bismarck's 
note, which in its substance was similar to the views 
they had exchanged at Varzin ; also, that the French 
Republic was completely in accord with the Imperial 
Government of Germany about the desirability of ar- 
riving at a mutual understanding respecting the de- 
limitation of territory over the west coast of Africa, 
especially where the German possessions border on 
those of the French. He likewise acknowledged that 
the friendly accord between the two Governments was 
connected with principles of the highest importance to 
trade in Africa, of which the chief are those which 
must govern the freedom of trade in the basin of the 
Congo. He also assented to the idea that whereas 
the African International Association, which had estab- 
lished a number of stations on the Congo, declares 
itself ready to admit that principle over all the territory 
under its control, France should grant freedom of 
trade over that which she now owns, or may hereafter 
own on the Congo, and that France declared her wil- 
lingness to permit this freedom to continue in the 
event of her reaping the benefit of the arrangements 
touched upon by the Prince, which assures to France 
the right of preference in case of alienation of the 
territories acquired by the Association. He defined 
freedom of commerce to mean free access to all flags, 
and the interdiction of all monopoly or differential 
duties ; but not excluding the establishment of taxes 
to compensate for useful expenditure incurred in the 
interests of commerce. While freely extending these 
beneficial concessions to commercial enterprise in the 



438 Stanley's story; or, 

Congo basin, Baron de Courcel stated that France 
was not willing that Gaboon, Guinea or Senegal should 
share them ; but solely the Congo and the Niger. 

Prince Bismarck then, with the acquiescence of 
France, extended an invitation through the represen- 
tatives of the different nations to a Conference to be 
held at Berlin on the 15th of November following. 
The sittings of this Conference were held in the Ger- 
man Chancellor's palace on Wilhelmstrasse, in the 
same room where the Berlin Conference sat In 1878. 

When the members of the Conference had assem- 
bled. Prince Bismarck rose to formally open it, and in 
a short address he declared that the Conference had 
met for the solution of three main objects, to wit. 

1. The free navigation, with freedom of trade on 
the river Congo. 

2. The free navigation of the river Niger. 

3. The formalities to be observed for valid annexa- 
tion of territory In future on the African continent. 

To this conference Mr. Stanley had been appointed 
technical delegate for the United States, and was in- 
troduced by the American Minister in highly compli- 
mentary terms. On the expression of views by the 
several delegates, Mr. Stanley, when called upon in the 
order on the roll, arose and said : 

"To define the geographical basin of the Congo, 
whether explored or unexplored, is a very easy mat- 
ter, since every school-boy knows that a river basin, 
geographically speaking, includes all that territory 
drained by the river and its affluents, large and small. 
The Congo, unlike many other large rivers, has no 
fluvial delta. It issues into the Atlantic Ocean in one 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 439 

united stream between Shark's Point on the south and 
Banana Point on the north, with a breadth of seven 
miles and an unknown depth. Soundings have been 
obtained over 1 300 feet deep. The Niger has a fluvial 
delta extending over 180 miles of coast line. The Nile 
and the Mississippi have deltas extending over a 
considerable breadth of coast line ; but when you ask 
me as to what I should consider as the commercial 
basin of the Congo, I am bound to answer you that 
the main river and Its most important affluents run- 
ninor into it from the north and south and from the 
northeast and northwest, east and west, southeast 
and southwest, constitute means by which trade as- 
cending the river and Its affluents can Influence a 
much larger amount of territory than Is comprised 
within the geographical basin. 

"For all practical purposes the geographical basin 
of the Congo might be permitted to stand for the com- 
mercial basin of the Congo as well. When we begm 
to consider the commercial outlets from this basin of 
the Congo we must bear In mind that they extend, as 
a commercial delta to a commercial basin, from St. 
Paul de Loanda, to the south of the mouth of the 
Congo, as far north and Including the Ogowai River. 
Whereas much of the littoral through which the com- 
mercial delta debouches Is already occupied, we find 
that the breadth of what may be considered as the 
free commercial delta of the commercial basin of the 
Congo extends along the coast line from 1° 25' S. 
latitude to near 7° 50' S. latitude 385 geographical 
miles, for the following reason : At Stanley Pool, 
325 miles up the Congo from the sea, we encounter 



440 STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

fleets of trading canoes which have descended the 
main river from as far up as the Equator, from the 
affluents Mohindu, or Black River, and the Kwango, or 
Kwa, who wait patiently months at a time for the 
caravans from Loango, the Kwilu, Landana, Kabinda, 
Zombo, Funta, Kinzas, Kinsembo, Ambrizette and 
other places on the coast, which bring European goods 
from the coast to Stanley Pool to exchange for the 
produce of the upper Congo, notably ivory, rubber 
arid camwood powder; and after a time, having ex- 
changed their goods, march back with such produce 
of the upper Congo as will repay transportation to the 
European traders settled along the free coast line of 
385 geographical miles just mentioned. These various 
channels of trade, formed by uninstructed barbarism, 
may then well be compared to a commercial delta. To 
define the commercial basin of the Congo by bounda- 
ries is very simple after the above remarks, and I will 
describe them as follows : Commencing from the 
Atlantic Ocean, I should follow the line of 1° 25' S. lat- 
itude east as far as 13° 13' longitude east of Greenwich, 
and along that meridian north until the water-shed of 
the Niger-Binue is reached thence easterly along the 
water-shed separating the waters flowing into the 
Congo from those flowing into the Shari, and continu- 
ing east along the water-parting between the waters 
of the Congo and those of the Nile and southerly and 
easterly along the water-shed between the waters 
flowing into the Tanganyika and those flowing into the 
aflluents of Lake Victoria, and still clinging to the 
water-shed to the east of the Tanganyika southerly 
until the water-parting between the waters flowing 



I 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 44I 

into the Zambesi and those flowing into the Congo is 
reached ; thence along that water-shed westerly until 
the headwaters of the main tributary of the Kwango, 
or Kwa, is reached, whence the line shown runs along 
the left bank of the river Kwango, or Kwa, to 7° 50' 
S. latitude ; thence straio^ht to the Loo^e River, and 
thence along the left bank of that river westerly to the 
Adantic Ocean. By this delimitation you will have 
( omprised the geographical or commercial basin and 
ics present commercial delta." 

Being asked by Baron de Courcel as to what might 
be the estimated value of the trade in the Congo 
basin, Mr. Stanley replied : 

" The lower Congo and the immediate free littoral 
make a shore line 388 miles in length. This mileage 
produces a present trade of ^2,800,000 annually. The 
upper Congo is much more fertile, and, as it has a 
river shore of 10,000 miles, It ought to produce, if 
equally developed, a trade worth ;^70,ooo,ooo annually. 
Or, if we reckon it in this manner, from the river 
Gambia to Loanda, along a coast line of 2900 miles in 
length, there are employed forty-five steamers and 
eighty sailing vessels every year. The Congo basin, 
with river banks over three times longer, ought to 
employ, if equally developed and equally exploited, 
three times that number, or say 135 steamers and 240 
sailing vessels." 

In answer to Hon. M. Kasson, U. S. Minister, when 
asked to explain if a further extension of the free 
commercial territory to the eastward would not be 
advantageous to commerce, Mr. Stanley proceeded to 
state, after briefly referring to his overland journey 



442 STANLEY'S STORY; OR, 

across the continent in the years 1874, i^75' ^^7^ ^^^ 
1877, with some of its incidents, his reasons why the 
free commercial territory across Central Africa should 
be comprised within certain limits, which he then 
also briefly defined. And in conclusion said : 

"I respectfully submit that the more unrestricted 
this spacious commercial domain shall be the sooner 
it will be subjected to the influences of Christianity, 
civilization and commerce. It bears within itself all 
the products required by the necessities of Europe, 
and all the elements that might be needed for its con- 
version from being an unproductive waste to be a 
material and moral profit to humanity. Within its 
bosom it contains nearly 80,000 square miles of lake 
water, the second largest river and river-basin in the 
world, fertility that no equatorial or tropical regions 
elsewhere can match, a population I should estimate 
at ninety millions of people, great independent native 
empires, kingdoms and republics, like Uganda, Ruan- 
da, Unyoro, and the pastoral plain country like the 
Masai land, gold and silver deposits, abundant copper 
and iron mines, valuable forests producing priceless 
timber, inexhaustible quantities of rubber, precious 
gums and spices, pepper and coffee, cattle in countless 
herds, and people who are amenable to the courtesies 
of life, provided they are protected from the attacks 
of the lawless freebooter and the merciless wiles of 
the slave traders. These facts, I respectfully submit, 
are sufficient to justify me in suggesting that the more 
comprehensible yet simple limits just described should 
form the boundaries of the free commercial territory 
of Equatorial Africa, and that free, unrestricted means 



THROUGH THE WiLDS OF AFRICA. 443 

of access should be secured to it, both from the east 
as well as the west." 

The deliberations of the Berlin Conference were 
finally closed on February 26th, with the result that 
the International Association received satisfactory 
recognition from the several nations represented, and 
the limits of the respective colonial possessions of 
other nations in Africa were fully defined and set ; 
forth. The protocol was duly signed by all the pleni- • 
potentiaries, and published. Mr. Stanley in speaking ' 
of the labors of the Conference and its results, said: 
" Two European Powers emerge out of the elaborate 
discussions, protracted for such a long period princi- 
pally through the adroitness and skill of Baron de 
Courcel and the concurrence of Prince Bismarck, with 
enormously increased colonial possessions. France is 
now mistress of a West African territory noble in its 
dimensions, equal to the best tropic lands for its pro- 
ductions, rich in mineral resources, most promising for 
its future commercial importance. In area it covers a 
superficies of 257,000 square miles, equal to that of 
France and England combined, with access on the 
eastern side to 5200 miles of river navigation ; on the 
west is a coast line nearly 800 miles, washed by the 
Atlantic Ocean. It contains within its borders eight 
spacious river basins, and throughout all its broad sur- 
face of 90,000,000 squares hectares, not one utterly 
destitute of worth can be found. 

" Portugal issues out of the Conference with a 
coast line 995 English miles in length, 351,500 square 
statute miles in extent — a territory larger than the com- 
bined areas of France, Belgium, Holland, and Great 



444 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Britain. On the lower Congo its river bank is 103 
miles in length." 

The International Association in return surrendered 
its claims to 60,366 squares miles of territory to France, 
and to Portugal 45,400 square miles, for which it also 
received 600 square miles of the north bank between 
Boma and the sea, and recognition of its remaining 
territorial rights from two powerful neighbors, Ger- 
many and England. 

The territories surrendered by the Association have 
been consecrated to free trade, which, along with 
those recognized as belonging to the Association and 
which were pre-ordained for such uses, and those as 
yet unclaimed by any Power, but still reserved for the 
same privileges, form a domain equal to 1,600,000 
square miles in extent, throughout which most excep- 
tional privileges have been secured by the cordial 
unanimity of the riveraine of the United States and 
European Powers for commerce. 

The merchant adventurer is fenced all about with 
guarantees against spoliation, oppression, vexation and 
worry, and his Consul, the representative of his Gov- 
ernment, Is charged with the jurisdiction of his person 
and property. At the gateway to the free commercial 
realm the Commissioner, with his colleagues, will have 
position, and will there remain to protect his Interests. 

These officials constitute a court of law called the 
International Commission, to whom he can always ap- 
peal for redress and protection. Only on the expor- 
tation of the produce he has collected can a moderate 
charge be made, sufficient to remunerate the riveraine 
Government for its expenditure. The liquor traffic is 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 445 

placed under proper control, slave-trading is prohibi- 
ted, the missionary is entitled to special protection, 
and scientific expeditions to special privileges. 

The United States Government was the first to 
publicly acknowledge the great civilizing work of King 
Leopold II. by recognizing the flag of the International 
Association of the Congo as that of a friendly gov- 
ernment. This flag is a blue flag with a golden star 
in the centre. 

Mr. Stanley while at Berlin, in attendance upon the 
sessions of the Conference, was the recipient of very 
marked attentions from the nobility, and had conferred 
upon him the rank of honorary membership in the 
leading geographical and scientific societies of Ger- 
many. He lectured in some of the most prominent 
cities upon the subject of Central Africa, and was lis- 
tened to by large and appreciative audiences, who 
gave him most cordial and generous receptions. 




CHAPTER XXV. 

EMIN PASHA, GOVERNOR OF THE SOUDANESE PROVINCES. 

Sketch of his Early Life — His Real Name — A Silesian by Birth — Student at the 
University of Breslau — Becomes a Physician — Goes to Turkey and thence to 
Antivari and Scutari — Attached to the Court of Valis Ismael Pasha Haggi— • 
Returns home in 1873 — ^^ '^75 go^s to Egypt — Enter% the Egyptian Semce 
as *' Dr. Emin Effendi " — Meets with Gordon — Receives the post of Comman- 
der of Lado, together with the Government of the Equatorial Provinces — Death 
of General Gordon and Retreat of Lord Wolseley's Army — Becomes Depen- 
dent upon his own Resources, after all Communication with the Egyptian Gov- 
ernment is Cut Off — Encompassed by Hostile Tribes, is Lost to the Rest of the 
World — A Resume of what he Effected in his Administration of Public Affairs 
— His Diary — Extracts sent to Friends — Insurrection, and Invasion of the 
Province by the Mahdi's Forces— His Position very Critical — Excites the Sym- 
pathy of the Whole World. 

Mr. Stanley's return to America at the close of the 

Congo expedition, in 1886, was his first in thirteen 

years. But he was not to enjoy the rest which he 

had promised himself. His services were even then 

being called for, by the course events were shaping 

themselves in the Egyptian Soudan. Through the 

infamous action of the British Ministry, in abandoning 

Gordon and his followers to their fate in Central 

Africa, public opinion became thoroughly aroused to 

the necessity of sending an expedition to their reh'ef. 

And to Stanley the eyes of the world at once turned 

as the man to lead it. To understand fully, however, 

the situation, it will be necessary to recount some of 

the history of Emin and his career in the Egyptian 

Soudan. 

446 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRtCA. 447 

For a sketch of the early life of Emin Pasha we 
are indebted to Dr. Schweinfurth. He tells us that 
Emin's right name is Edward Schnitzer, and that he 
was born in 1840 at Oppeln, in Silesia. His father, a 
merchant, died in 1845, and three years before that 
date the family removed to Neisse, where Emin's 
mother and sister are still living. When Edward 
Schnitzer had passed through the gymnasium at Neisse 
he devoted himself to the study of medicine at the 
University of Breslau. During the years 1863 and 
1864 he pursued his studies at the Berlin Academy. 
The desire for adventure and an exceptional taste for 
natural science induced the young medical student to 
seek a field for his calling abroad. He therefore, at 
the end of 1864, l^^t Berlin with the intention of ob- 
taining the post of physician in Turkey. Chance car- 
ried him to Antivari and then to Scutari. Here he 
soon managed to attract the attention of Valis Ismael 
Pasha Haggi, and was received into the following of 
that dignitary, who, in his official position, had to travel 
through the various provinces of the empire. When, 
in this way, Dr. Schnitzer had learned to know Arme- 
nians, Syrians, and Arabians, he finally reached Con- 
stantinople, where the Pasha died in 1873. ^^ ^^^ 
summer of 1875 Dr. Schnitzer returned to his rela- 
tions in Neisse ; but after a few months the old pas- 
sion for travel again came over him, and he betook 
himself to Egypt, where favorable prospects were 
opened out to him. With the beginning of the year 
1876 he appears as " Dr. Emin Effendi," enters the 
Egyptian service, and places himself at the disposal of 
the Governor-General of the Soudan. In the post 



44^ siANLEYis story; or, 

there given him Dr. Emin met with Gordon, who two 
years before (1874) had been intrusted with the ad- 
ministration of the newly-created Equatorial province. 
Gordon was just the man to respect an Emin, and cor- 
rectly estimate his gifts and capabilities. He sent him 
on tours of inspection through the territory and on 
repeated missions to King Mtesa at Uganda. When 
Gordon Pasha, two years later, became administrator 
of all territory lying outside the narrower limits of 
Egypt, Dr. Emin Effendi received the post of com- 
mander at Lado, together with the government of the 
Equatorial province. With how much fidelity and 
self-denial he devoted himself to his task is well 
known. 

During the first three years of his term he drove 
out the slave-traders from a populous region of six 
million inhabitants. He converted a deficiency of 
revenues into a surplus. He conducted the govern- 
ment on the lines marked out by General Gordon, and 
was equally modest, disinterested, and conscientious. 
When the Mahdi's rebellion broke out a governor- 
general of another stamp was at Khartoum. Emin's 
warning from the remote south passed unheeded. 
Hick's army, recruited from Arabi's demoralized regi- 
ments, was massacred ; the Egyptian garrisons through- 
out the Soudan were abandoned to their fate, atro- 
cious campaigns of unnecessary bloodshed were 
fought on the seaboard, and General Gordon was sent 
to Khartoum to perish miserably while waiting for a 
relief expedition that crawled by slow stages up the 
Nile, and was too late to be of practical service. Dur- 
ing all these years of stupid misgovernment and wasted 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 449 

blood Emin remained at his post. When the death 
of General Gordon and the retreat of Lord Wolseley's 
army wiped out the last vestige of Egyptian rule in 
the regions of the upper Nile, the Equatorial provinces 
were cut off, neglected, and forgotten. 

It then became impossible for Emin to communicate 
with the Egyptian Government, and he was practically 
lost to the rest of the world. He was dependent upon 
his own resources in a region encompassed by hostile 
tribes. He might easily have cut his way out to 
safety, by the way of the Congo or Zanzibar, with the 
best of his troops, leaving the w^omen and children 
behind to their fate. But this he scorned to do. He 
stood at his post, and bravely upheld the standard of 
civilization in Africa. He had with him about four 
thousand troops at the outset. He organized auxiliary 
forces of native soldiers ; he was constantly engaged 
in warfare with surrounding tribes; he garrisoned a 
dozen river stations lying long distances apart; his 
ammunition ran low, and he lacked the money needed 
for paying his small army. But, in the face of mani- 
fold difficulties and dangers, he maintained his position, 
governed the country well, and taught the natives how 
to raise cotton, rice, indigo, and coffee, and also how 
to weave cloth, and make shoes, candles, soap, and 
many articles of commerce. He vaccinated the na- 
tives by the thousand in order to stamp out small-pox; 
he opened the first hospital known in that quarter ; 
he established a regular post-route with forty offices ; 
he made important geographical discoveries in the 
basin of the Albert Lake ; and in many ways demon- 
strated his capacity for governing barbarous races by 



450 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

the methods and standards of European civilization. 
The last European who visited him was Dr. Junker, 
the German traveller, who parted from him at Wadelai 
on January ist, 1886. His position was then more 
favorable, but he had been reduced at one time to ex- 
tremities, his soldiers having escaped by a desperate 
sortie, cutting their way through the enemy after they 
had been many days without food, and " when the last 
torn leather of the last boot had been eaten." Letters 
written by him in October, 1886, at Wadelai, describ- 
ing his geographical discoveries, were received in Eng- 
land in 1887, "^ith a contributed article for a Scotch 
scientific journal. The provisions and ammunition 
sent to him by Dr. Junker had had a very encourag- 
ing effect upon his troops. He wrote : " I am still 
holding out here, and will not forsake my people." 

Emin kept a diary of his life and work, and, when- 
ever opportunity offered, sent extracts from it in the 
form of letters to friends in Europe. From these a 
graphic idea may be formed of his unique career. In 
August, 1883, he wrote : 

'* It seems to me that when disturbances arise among 
a newly-subdued people it is chiefly to be attributed 
to wrong methods of action on the part of our people, 
who make exaggerated demands, forgetting that a 
newly-captured bird must first become accustomed to 
its cage. Intercourse with negroes and their treatment 
are not so difficult as often appears to inexperienced 
travellers, who know their mendacity, and, where they 
have the power, their extortion. It only requires inex- 
haustible patience and unruffled composure — virtues 
which are certainly not often acquired from the brandy- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 45 1 

bottle. A sojourn of nearly eight years here has 
taught me that, with a little kind treatment, negroes 
are tolerably easy to govern. I have also certainly 
learnt that for Equatorial Africa temperance is a good 
habit 

" It Is a beautiful characteristic of the Sandeh — the 
worst anthropophagi of our country — that they have 
the greatest affection for their wives and daughters, 
and would bear anything rather than their loss. . . . 

" From Gambari's village, four days' march brought 
me to TIngasI, our headquarters In Monbuttu, an 
hour's march from Tangara's residence. To this place 
visitors from all sides flocked in such numbers that I 
was often quite overwhelmed. From west and south 
came the chiefs with their trains — the Sandeh princes 
Bori, Kanna's nephew ; Mbiltima and Ikva, Uando's 
sons ; Mbru and Massinse, the Monbuttu princes Tan- 
gara, Asanga, Munsa's brother ; Mbala, Munsa's son ; 
Kadabo, Benda, and others. In addition to these, the 
women, often as many as fifty or sixty, seated on little 
stools, were grouped round me, all beautifully painted 
black, with high chignons ; those belonging to the 
princely houses, such as Munsa's and Tangara's 
daughters, being crowned with Monbuttu hats. If 
only you could have seen the transports of delight 
which Schweinfurth's perfectly accurate drawings ex- 
cited in this circle, and the interest with which they 
looked at my zoological sketches ! The Monbuttu are 
a very highly-gifted people, and this would be a fertile 
field for happy and useful work. If anything is to be 
made of this richly-endowed country, here or nowhere 
is. the place for a capable European official, who must, 



452 Stanley's story; or, 

to be sure, possess some self-denial If the Govern- 
ment would give the country over to me, independent 
of the Equatorial provinces proper, I should be quite 
willing to undertake the work at once. The distance 
from Lado could be diminished by the opening of new 
routes 

" I have been twice in Uganda, and believed I 
should meet with many persons like those in Mpnbuttu; 
but my expectations were not fulfilled. Monbuttu is 
very different from all that one is accustomed to see 
in Africa, and so different that a comparison can 
hardly be thought of I was always meeting with in- 
describable splendor and luxuriance of vegetation — 
giant trees waving their tops together like a dome, 
more sublime and majestic than all the cathedrals in 
the world. Whoever wishes to attain a due sense of 
God's majesty and power should go into these forests, 
and, silent and wondering, confess how miserable and 
contemptible are men's works beside the works of 
Him who created this enchanting beauty and splen- 
dor." 

Troublous times came upon him, and in August, 
1884, he was practically cut off from the rest of the 
world, and was in daily expectation of being assailed 
by the overwhelming hosts of the Mahdi. Under such 
circumstances he wrote : 

" It win probably appear to you somewhat comical 
that, notwithstanding the non-arrival of a steamer, I 
should again take up my correspondence with you. It 
certainly seems as if we were totally deserted and for- 
gotten by all the world. But I think that the good 
God, who has up to the present time protected us 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 453 

from all harm, will In the future also have us under 
His protection, and so, perchance, my letter may some 
day arrive at its destination. Whilst suffering from 
the very sorrowful impression which the surrender of 
Lupton Bey to the Mahdi's troops had made upon me, 
I concluded my last letter to you in great haste. Dr. 
Junker wished to try to get to Zanzibar by the south 
route, via Uganda, and was so good as to take with 
him all my correspondence. Since he left here nearly 
two months have passed, and as since then all kinds 
of curious rumors have reached me, he has decided to 
wait awhile in Dufile and watch the course of events. 
Up to the present, thank God, the much-feared inva- 
sion of our province by the Mahdi's troops has not 
taken place, and I have been able, by giving up nearly 
all of my outlying stations, to concentrate my few 

soldiers I must, however, tell you that I heard 

from Lupton that he had been compelled to surrender 
both himself and his province Into the Mahdi's hands, 
and that he thought the best thing I could do was to 
follow his example." 

" Well may our friends," he wrote on New Year's 
Day, 1885, " have long since given up all hope for us. 
Our own Government has certainly deserted us. Yet 
we have managed to hold our own, and to defend our 
flag. How long we shall still be able to do so is a 
mere question of time, for as soon as the little remain- 
ing ammunition which we possess Is expended, It will 
be all up with us. . . . We are without news as to 
the course of events in Khartoum ; in fact, the whole 
of the outer world seems to have vanished completely 
from our ken. We have now begun to manufacture 



454 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

for ourselves the most Indispensable articles — very 
passable shoe-work, soap, and more recently still, cot- 
ton cloth for clothes. Candles made of wax prove 
very useful, and instead of sugar we use honey. We 
have not, however, yet succeeded in our endeavor to 
make vinegar, but I am not without hope that we shall 
have success in that direction. Temperance is natur- 
ally compulsory, for the drinks of native manufacture 
can only be consumed by children of the soil. Coffee, 
which we have long missed, we have at last replaced 
by roasting the seeds of a species of hibiscus, and 
brewing from it a fairly passable drink. Tea naturally 
does not exist. I thank God for His protection hither- 
to, and hope and have faith enough to believe that He 
will still protect us, and at last enable my few poor 
people to return to their homes in peace. 

''loth January. — Our fate it seems Is soon to be de- 
cided. We hear that four hundred armed men from 
Bahr-el-Ghazal have joined the rebels and that one 
thousand five hundred more are on the way. Only a 
miracle can save us. I send at once as many as possi- 
ble of my people to the south, for the route to Mtesa 
is still in existence. If I escape I will follow with my 
soldiers. But I can hardly expect to escape. It is 
shameful of our Government to have abandoned us. 

''12th January. — Dr. Junker goes in the meantime 
to Anfinas. He takes with him all my letters. If I see 
him again, as I hope I may, for I have some belief in 
my good star, I will write more. May God preserve 
you." 

There Emin remained with his body of Egyptian 
troops throughout all the disturbance in that region — < 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 455 

the appearance of El Mahdl and his success in wrest- 
ing some of the adjoining Soudanese provinces from 
the Egyptians ; Arabi Pasha's insurrection in Egypt 
and the subsequent Mahdist manceuvers. Emin and 
his small force were surrounded by hostile tribes. He 
was heard from but seldom, and at last all communica- 
tion ceased. The position in which Emin found him- 
self after Gordon's death excited the sympathy of the 
whole world. He was the Governor of a province 
which he had blessed with many of the arts of civiliza- 
tion, but was without sufficient force to resist the en- 
croachments of the enemy. He fought the slave trade 
and the slave dealers with something like the passion 
of fanaticism. He was hemmed in by hordes of cut- 
throats, and every effort to save himself from the 
impending fate seemed futile. It was feared he had 
fallen, like Gordon. 

In reviewing the career of this remarkable man, who 
has been so skillfully extricated by Stanley and his ex- 
pedition, the New York Tribune has recently said, 
editorially : 

"At his remote post of duty, this modest scientist'has 
done more for the abolition of African slavery than 
any other man now living, if we except only his gal- 
lant deliverer. He gave civilization to an empire and 
the blessings of freedom to teeming millions. Through- 
out a territory larger than all our New England States 
he destroyed the slave trade, established government, 
and founded schools, posts and industries of varied 
kinds. His administration was more than self-sup- 
porting, and even after the betrayal of Khartoum and 
his isolation from the rest of the world, he was pre- 



456 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



pared to hold his own, if only he could have some 
trifling aid from Europe. That aid he did not get. 
There seemed to be neither money nor votes in help- 
ing him, so the statesmen of Europe went by on the 
other side. He conquered savagery, defied pestilence, 
and triumphed over every foe the wilderness could 
send against him. The one enemy he could not sub- 
due was the selfish poltroonery of Europe. To that 
he has at last yielded. He has marched out in safety 
with honor upon his banners. He has left behind him 
the dismalest wreck in modern history to be a re- 
proach to the Powers that betrayed him. That the 
desert was made to blossom like the rose, is Emin's 
glory ; that it now relapses into a worse desert than 
before, is Europe's disgrace.'* 




CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE EMIN BEY RELIEF EXPEDITION. 

Public Opinion in England — A Relief Committee Organized — Subscription ol 
Funds to Defray Expenses of an Expedition — Henry M. Stanley called to Eng- 
land by Cable — Accepts Command of the Relief Expedition — Stanley's Opinion 
as to the Character of the Expedition and the best Route — Reaches Zanzibar — 
Meets Tippu-Tib — Supplied with 600 Carriers — Consents to Accompany Stan- 
ley — Sails for the Mouth of the Congo, February 25th — Reaches the Aruwimi 
in June — Leaves a Rearguard at Yambuya — Advance towards Albert Nyanza 
along the Valley of the Aruwimi — Startling Rumors — Stanley and Emin Re- 
ported to be in the Hands of the Arabs — A Letter in Proof Received from a 
Mahdist Officer in the Soudan — News of Disasters on the Congo — Murder of 
Dr. Barttelot — Death of Mr. Jamieson — The Gloomy News Regarding Stanley's 
Fate — The Opinion of Thomson, the African Traveller — News of Stanley's 
Arrival at Emin's Capital received December, 1888 — First News from Stanley 
Himself, April 3d, 1889 — Full Account of his March, and the Terrible Experien- 
ces Suffered from Yambuya to the Albert Nyanza. 

The betrayal of Gordon at Kartoum by the British 
Government, and the consequent sad pHght it placed 
Emin Pasha in, so thoroughly exasperated public opin- 
ion in England that immediate steps were taken to 
form a relief committee, and to raise the necessary 
funds to defray the expenses of fitting-out a relief ex- 
pedition, Sir William Mackinnon alone subscribing 
$100,000. To this the English Government grudg- 
ingly added a small appropriation from the Egyptian 
treasury. 

Henry M. Stanley, while standing on the stage of 
the Academy of Music, in the city of Philadelphia, on 
«i 457 



45S Stanley's story; or, 

December nth, 1886, lecturing on his experiences in 
the Congo, received a cable despatch calling him to 
England to take charge of the expedition to Wadelai, 
Emin's headquarters, near Lake Albert Nyanza. He 
immediately returned to England, and in a short time 
the arrangements were completed with the committee 
having the matter in charge. 

There was much discussion as to the route to be 
taken, most authorities favoring that overland from 
Zanzibar. But Mr. Stanley determined upon the 
Congo, and he described the character of the expedi- 
tion as follows : 

" The expedition Is non-military — that Is to say. Its 
purpose Is not to fight, destroy, or waste ; Its purpose 
Is to save, to relieve distress, to carry comfort. Emin 
Pasha may be a good man, a brave officer, a gallant 
fellow deserving of a strong effort of relief; but I de- 
cline to believe, and I have not been able to gather from 
any one In England, an Impression that his life, or the 
lives of the few hundreds under him, would overbalance 
the lives of thousands of natives, and the davastatlon 
of Immense tracts of country which an expedition 
strictly military would naturally cause. The expedi- 
tion Is a mere powerful caravan, armed with rifles for 
the purpose of insuring the safe conduct of the am- 
munition to Emin Pasha, and for the more certain 
protection of this people during the retreat home. 
But It also has means of purchasing the friendship of 
tribes and chiefs, of buying food and paying Its way 
liberally." 

Mr. Stanley went from England to Egypt, where he 
stopped for a time at Cairo, completing his arrange- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 459 

ments with the Egyptian Government. At the rail- 
way station, just before leaving for the wilderness, he 
had a farewell conversation with his friend Colonel 
John Colborne, a veteran of the Egyptian army in the 
Soudan. Speaking of some current rumors that he 
intended to seize Emin's province as a British posses- 
sion, he said : " The province is not worth taking, at least 
in the present state of affairs. The difficulty of trans- 
port from either coast is too great, and the expense, 
also, to give a return for money. As long as the Nile 
is closed the Central provinces will never pay, and it 
will be years before it is open again. Yes, the Central 
African provinces would be valuable enough were 
river communication free. On the east side there is 
no sufficiently navigable river, the presence of the 
tsetse fly prevents the employment of bullocks and 
horses, the ground is unsuited for camels, and the 
African elephant has never been tamed, so the only 
means of transport is by the Wapagari, or native por- 
ters, and a precious slow and expensive means it is, 
too. For any large trade purposes it would be utterly 
inadequate ; besides, the only present trade is in ivory 
and ebony — you know what I mean by that, I suppose? 
— and ivory is getting scarcer. Of course, if the Nile 
were open, there might be a splendid and most remu- 
nerative trade in gum, hides, beeswax, india-rubber; 
anything, too, I believe, could be cultivated to perfec- 
tion in these provinces, and probably the natives would 
soon learn, when once they got to appreciate the bene- 
fit of trading, to grow cotton, tea, perhaps coffee, rice, 
and the cinchona plant. Some parts are suited well 
for one kind of plant, other parts for another. Thus, 



460 Stanley's story; or, 

cotton would grow nearer the coasts, whereas tea and 
coffee and the cinchona plant could be cultivated on 
the slopes. But, as I said before, the true transit foi 
trade is by the Nile." 

In the course of further conversation he said, " Do 
you know that the Nile itself could be turned off with 
comparative ease ? The Victoria Nyanza is on a plateau 
like an inverted basin. It could be made to trickle over 
at any point. The present King of Uganda is fond of 
his liquor. Waking up any morning after drinking too 
much 'mwengi' (plantain wine) over night, he might 
have what is called ' a head on him,' and feel in a very 
bad temper. He might then take it into his head to 
turn off the Nile. He might do this by ordering a thou- 
sand or so natives to turn out and continue to drop 
stones across the Ripon Falls at the top till they were 
blocked. To do this would be quite possible. I cal- 
culate this could be done by the number of men I 
mention in nine months, for the falls are very narrow. 
True, the effect of this could be counteracted in a year 
or so by reservoirs and dykes ; but meanwhile the 
population of Egypt would be starved. His father, 
King Mtesa, once actually contemplated doing this — 
not with a view of creating mischief, but because he 
wanted to water some particular tract of land, and for 
this purpose to make the lake dribble over it." 

Concerning his own immediate work, Mr. Stanley 
talked at some length. " Tell them at home," he said, 
"that my mission is purely pacific. Does any one 
think I am going to wade through blood to get at 
Emin ? If I succeeded, what would be the consequence ? 
News would be brought to the King, ' Stanley is com- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 461 

ing with an army of thirty thousand men ' — you know 
how figures Increase when estimated by savages — and 
what would be the consequence ? * Ho ! Is he indeed ?' 
the King would say ; ' Til teach him to bring an army 
into my country. Chop off the heads of the mission- 
aries.' And," added Mr. Stanley, speaking quite ex- 
citedly, " what, I should like to know, is the value of 
Emin's life in comparison with that of the lives of such 
noble men as Mackay, Lichfield, Pere Loudel, and 
Frere Delmonce ? Does any one think I would sacri- 
fice them for the sake of Emin ?" 

On reaching Zanzibar he found that his agents had 
already recruited a force of six hundred men for the 
expedition, and that TIppu-TIb, who had escorted his 
caravan in 1877, when the first descent of the Congo 
was made, was waiting for him. Tippu-Tib was the 
Zobehr of the Upper Congo, commanding two of the 
best roads from the river to Wadelal. He agreed to 
supply six hundred carriers at thirty dollars a man ; 
and as Emin was reported by Dr. Junker to have 
seventy-five tons of ivory, the expenses of the expedi- 
tion might be largely defrayed by the return of the 
Zanzibarls to the Congo with their precious loads. 
Tippu-Tib was also offered the position of Governor 
at Stanley Falls at a regular salary. He consented to 
accompany Mr. Stanley on these terms. The steamer 
set out on February 25th for the mouth of the Congo 
with about seven hundred men of the expedition, 
reaching its destination In four weeks. He was then 
twelve hundred and sixty-six miles from Aruwimi, 
whence he was to march four hundred miles through 
an unknown country to Emin's capital. It was as late 



46^ Stanley's story; or, 

as April 26th before he could leave Leopoldville, on 
Stanley Pool, and it was not until the second week in 
June that the explorer himself was at Aruwimi, much 
^r'elay having been caused by defective transportation. 
He left men at Stanley Falls with instructions to re- 
build the storehouses, to open negotiations with the 
tribes, and to provide convoys of provisions for the re- 
lief expedition. A rearguard was left at Yambuya, 
and the advance column passed on to the limits of 
navigation, whence the overland march was taken up. 
Few difficulties were encountered apart from the na- 
tural obstacles presented by a country very difficult to 
traverse. About July 25th the expedition had ascen- 
ded the River Aruwimi as far as an elevated tract of 
country forming a portion of the Mabodi district. At 
this distance from its confluence with the Congo the 
river became very narrow, being no longer navigable, 
and Mr. Stanley was compelled for several days to 
have all the provisions and munitions for the use of the 
expedition, as well as those intended for the revictual- 
ling of Emin Pasha's garrison, carried on the men's 
backs. The quantity of rice was so large that each 
man had to bear a double burden. The rafts which 
had been employed to convey the heavy baggage were 
left behind, and only the steel whale-boat brought from 
the camp at the foot of the Aruwimi rapids was car- 
ried past the narrows and again launched in the river, 
Mr. Stanley greatly congratulating himself that he had 
brought it, owing to the amount of water which, ac- 
cording to the inhabitants of that part of the country, 
the expedition would have to cross before reaching the 
Albert Nyanza. Mr. Stanley calculated that once ar 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 463 

rived at the summit of the table-lands which shape the 
basin of the Aruwimi he would be able to halt for two 
days, in order to rest his men and establish a fresh 
camp, garrisoned like that at Yambuya, by twenty men 
and a European officer. The population of the coun- 
try through which Mr. Stanley was then travelling was 
considerable, but the people were much scattered. 
The district was tranquil, the agitation prevalent in the 
neighborhood of Stanley Falls not having spread to 
that part of the country. 

At the beginning of August the expedition was re- 
ported to be advancing without the ammunition and 
stores designed for Emin. Provisions were scarce, 
the officers and men undergoing great privations, and 
suffering from disease and hunger. ' Tippu-Tib had 
failed to send to Yambuya the five hundred carriers 
who were to convey the stores. This failure was not 
due to treachery, since he was still at his post and 
faithful to Mr. Stanley's interests. In consequence of 
the disturbed state of the country he could not, as had 
been agreed upon, organize a revictualling caravan to 
be dispatched direct to the Albert Nyanza by the way 
of the River Mbourou, but he agreed to do so as soon 
as possible. The agitation continued in the country 
between Stanley Falls and the confluence of the Aru- 
wimi with the Congo. Several villages on the right 
bank of the Congo had been pillaged and laid waste, 
and a large number of the natives had crossed the 
river to the opposite bank. 

Thus, Mr. Stanley and his comrades plunged into 
the wilderness, and were lost to the sight of the world. 
From time to time thereafter countless rumors came 



464 Stanley's story; or, 

from Africa regarding them — rumors varied In tone as 
in number. At one time they had reached Emin in 
safety. Again they were all massacred long before 
they got to Wadelai. Now, Mr. Stanley had put him- 
self at the head of Emin's army, and was marching on 
Khartoum to aveno-e Gordon and overthrow the 
Mahdi ; and then he and Emin were captured by the 
Mahdist forces at Lado. Stories came of a mysterious 
" White Pasha " who was leading a conquering army 
through the Bahr el Ghazel country, and it was very 
generally believed that it was Mr. Stanley, who had 
reached Wadelai and was returning to the coast by 
the way of the Niger. But on December 15th, 1888, 
startling news came from Suakim, on the Red Sea 
coast of Egypt. Osman Digna, the Frenchman who 
had turned Arab, and was leader of the Mahdist army 
there, under a flag of truce informed the British com- 
mander that Emin's province had fallen into Arab 
hands, and that Emin and Stanley were prisoners. In 
proof of this he sent a copy of a letter just received 
from a Mahdist officer In the Soudan, as follows : 

" In the name of the Great God, etc. This is from 
the least among God's servants to his Master and Chief 
Khalifa, etc. We proceeded with the steamers and 
army. Reached the town Lado, where Emin, Mudir 
of Equator, is staying. We reached this place 5th 
Safar, 1306. We must thank officers and men who 
made this conquest easy to us before our arrival. They 
caught Emin and a traveler staying with him, and put 
both in chains. The officers and men refused to go 
to Egypt with the Turks. Tewfik sent Emin one of 
the travellers, whose name is Mr. Stanley. This Mr. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 465 

Stanley brought with hlrn a letter from Tewfik to Emin, 
dated 8th Jemal Aowal, 1304, No. 81, telling Emin to 
come with Mr. Stanley, and gave the rest of the force 
the option to go to Cairo or remain. The force refused 
the Turkish orders, and gladly received us. I found a 
great deal of feathers and ivory. I am sending with 
this, on board the * Bordain,' the officers and chief 
clerk. I am also sending the letter which came to 
Emin from Tewfik, with the banners we took from the 
Turks. I heard that there is another traveller who 
came to Emin, but I heard that he returned. I am 
Poking out for him. If he comes back again, I am 
sure to catch him. All the chiefs of the province with 
the inhabitants were delighted to receive us. I have 
taken all the arms and ammunition. Please return 
the officers and chief clerk when you have seen them 
and given the necessary instructions, because they will 
be of great use to me." 

This Was accompanied by what appeared to be a 
letter written by the Khedive at Cairo to Emin, which 
had been intrusted to Mr. Stanley to deliver, and this 
convinced many of the truth of Osman Digna's story. 
But, as a matter of fact, as will be seen later, it was all 
an ingenious lie, concocted for the purpose of frighten- 
ing the British into abandoning Suakim to the slave- 
traders. Meantime there was true news of actual dis- 
asters on the Congo. Major Barttelot, commanding 
the rearguard of the expedition, was murdered ; and 
Mr. Jamieson, who succeeded to the command, died of 
fever. Under these circumstances, the gloomiest and 
most anxious views prevailed regarding Mr. Stanley's 
fate. That famous and experienced African traveller, 



466 Stanley's story ; or, 

Mr. Joseph Thomson, expressed the opinion that the 
whole expedition had been annihilated. " Stanley," he 
said, " has met his terrible fate In some such way as 
this : He started from the AruwimI, and almost imme- 
diately plunged into dense forests, to be made worse 
by swamps further east. Through such a country his 
caravan would have to travel in single file, with proba- 
bly no more than twenty men in sight at one time. 
Under such conditions It would be impossible for the 
Europeans to keep in touch with their men, and thus 
scattered, thus without officers in a sense, they would 
fight at a terrible disadvantage. And fight they would 
have to for daily food if nothing else, and consequent- 
ly with each succeeding week less able to continue the 
struggle. In this way they plunged deeper and deeper 
into the recesses of the unknown forest and swamp — 
and deeper and deeper, no doubt, into the heart of a 
powerful tribe of natives. And then the end came. 
Probably in that last struggle for life not a soul es- 
caped. 

" If you ask me why no news, no rumor of that 
catastrophe leaked out, I answer because there was no 
trade, not even a slave route, through that region. 
There was no native or Arab merchant to carry the 
news from tribe to tribe ; and as each tribe has little 
but fighting relations with the neighboring ones, the 
tidings would not get through by their means. And, 
after all, what would the massacre of a passing cara- 
van be to those savages ? Only a common incident not 
worth speaking about beside the continual tribal wars 
they are accustomed to. The one thing they would 
find to remark would be the wonderful character of 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 467 

the plunder. Some day, no dou.bt, the news will leak 
out, but it may be months before anything reaches us. 
It is not much use crying over spilt milk, but one can- 
not help lamenting over this probable new disaster. 
It is all so much on a par with our terrible blunder- 
ings in the Soudan and East Africa. Only another 
remarkable man killed, and the magnificent life's work 
of another ruined. But for the selection of the Congo 
route Stanley might have been alive, Emin succored, 
and not improbably the Mahdi's host defeated." 

These were weighty words, coming from so eminent 
an authority, and they carried conviction to the hearts 
of many. But less than ten days later positive and 
authentic news of Mr. Stanley's arrival at Emin 
Pasha's capital was received, and April 3d, 1889, full 
details of the campaign, written by Mr. Stanley him- 
self, were received and published. This letter was to 
the Chairman of the Relief Committee, and was dated 
at Bungangeta Island, Ituri or Aruwimi River, August 
28th, 1888, and from which we quote: 

*' A short dispatch briefly announcing that we had 
placed the first installment of relief In the hands of 
Emin Pasha on the Albert Nyanza was sent to you by 
couriers from Stanley Falls, along with letters to TIppu- 
Tib, the Arab Governor of that district, on the 17th 
inst., within three hours of our meeting with the rear 
column of the expedition. I propose to relate to 
you the story of our movements since June 28th, 1887. 

"I had established an entrenched and palisaded 
camp at Yambuya, on the Lower Aruwimi, just below , 
the first rapids. Major Edmund Barttelot, being senior 
of these officers with me, was appointed commandant. 



46S Stanley's story; or, 

Mr. J. S. Jamleson, a volunteer, was associated with 
him. On the arrival of all men and goods from Bolo- 
bo and Stanley Pool, the officers still believed Messrs. 
Troup, Ward and Bonny were to report to Major 
Barttelot for duty. But no important action or move- 
ment (according to letter of instructions given by me 
to the Major before leaving) was to be made without 
consulting with Messrs. Jamieson, Troup, and Ward. 
The columns under Major Barttelot's orders mustered 
two hundred and fifty-seven men. 

"As I requested the Major to send you a copy of 
the instructions issued to each officer, you are doubt- 
less aware that the Major was to remain at Yambuya 
until the arrival of the steamer from Stanley Pool with 
the officers, men, and goods left behind ; and if Tippy- 
Tib's promised contingent of carriers had in the mean- 
time arrived, he was to march his column and follow 
our track, which, so long as it traversed the forest re- 
gion, would be known by the blazing of the trees, by 
our camps and zaribas, etc. If Tippu-Tib's carriers 
did not arrive, then, if he (the Major) preferred mov- 
ing on to staying at Yambuya, he was to discard such 
things as mentioned in letter of instructions, and com- 
mence making double and triple journeys by short 
stages, until I should come down from the Nyanza and 
relieve him. The instructions were explicit and, as the 
officers admitted, intelligible. 

" The advance column, consisting of three hundred 
and eighty-nine officers and men, set out from Yam- 
buya, June 28th, 1887. The first day we followed the 
river bank, marched twelve miles, and arrived in the 
large district of Yankonde. At our approach the natives 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 469 

set fire to their villages, and, under cover of the smoke, 
attacked the pioneers who were clearing the numerous 
obstructions they had planted before the first village. 
The skirmish lasted fifteen minutes. The second day 
we followed a path leading inland but trending east. 
We followed this path for five days through a dense 
population. Every art known to native minds for mo- 
lesting, impeding, and wounding an enemy was re- 
sorted to, but we passed through without the loss of a 
man. Perceiving that the path was taking us too far 
from our course, we cut a northeasterly track, and 
reached the river again on the 5th of July. From this 
date until the i8th of October we followed the left 
bank of the Aruwimi. After seventeen days' contin- 
uous marching we halted one day for rest. On the 
twenty-fourth day from Yambuya we lost two men by de- 
sertion. In the month of July we made four halts only. 
On the I St of August the first death occurred, which 
was from dysentery ; so that for thirty-four days our 
course had been singularly successful. But as we now 
entered a wilderness, which occupied us nine days in 
marching through it, our sufferings began to multiply, 
and several deaths occurred. The river at this time 
was of great use to us. Our^boat and several canoes 
relieved the wearied and sick of their loads, so that 
progress, though not brilliant as during the first month, 
was still steady. 

"On the 13th of August we arrived at Air-Sibba. 
The natives made a bold front. We lost five men 
through poisoned arrows, and, to our great grief. Lieu- 
tenant Stairs was wounded just below the heart ; but, 
though he suffered greatly for nearly a month, he 



1-70 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

finally recovered. On the 15th Mr. Jephson, in com- 
mand of the land party, led his men inland, became 
confused, and lost his way. We were not re-united- 
until the 21st. 

"On the 25th of August we arrived in the district 
of Air-jeli. Opposite our camp was the mouth of the 
tributary Nepoko. 

" On the 31st of August we met for the first time a 
party of Manyema, belonging to the caravan of Ugar- 
rowwa, alias Uledi Balyuz, who turned out to be a 
former tent-boy of Speke's. Our misfortunes began 
from this date, for I had taken the Congo route to avoid 
Arabs, that they might not tamper with my men, and 
tempt them to desert by their presents. Twenty-six 
men deserted within three days of this unfortunate 
meeting. 

''On the 1 6th of September we arrived at a camp 
opposite the station at Ugarrowwa's. As food was 
very scarce, owing to his having devasted an immense 
region, we halted but one day near him. Such friendly 
terms as I could make with such a man I made, and 
left fifty-six men with him. All the Somalis preferred 
to rest at Ugarrowwa's to the continuous marching. 
Five Soudanese were also left. It would have been 
certain death for all of them to have accompanied us. 
At Ugarrowwa's they might possibly recover. Five 
dollars a month per head was to be paid to this man 
for their food. 

"On September i8th we left Ugarrowwa's, and on 
the 1 8th of October entered the settlement occupied 
by Kilinga-Longa, a Zanzibari slave belonging to Abed 
bin Salim, an old Arab, whose bloody deeds are re- 




ON THE BANKS OF THE NEPOKO. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 47 1 

corded in * The Congo, and the Founding of its Free 
State/ This proved an awful month to us. Not one 
member of the expedition, white or black, will ever 
forget it. The advance numbered two hundred and 
seventy-three souls on leaving Ugarrowwa's, because 
out of three hundred and eighty we had lost sixty-six 
men by desertion and death between Yambuya and 
Ugarrowwa's, and had left fifty-six men sick at the 
Arab station. On reaching Kilinga-Longa's we dis- 
covered we had lost fifty-five men by starvation and 
desertion. We had lived principally on wild fruit, 
fungi, and a large, flat, bean-shaped nut. The slaves of 
Abed bin Salim did their utmost to ruin the expedition. 
Short of open hostilities, they purchased rifles, ammuni- 
tion, clothing, so that when we left their station we 
were beggared, and our men were absolutely naked. 
We were so weak physically that we were unable to 
carry the boat and about seventy loads of goods. We 
therefore left these goods and boat at Kilinga-Longa's 
under Surgeon Parke and Captain Nelson, the latter 
of whom was unable to march, and after twelve days' 
march we arrived at a native settlement called Ibwiri. 
Between Kilinga-Longa's and Ibwiri our condition had 
not Improved. The Arab devastation had reached 
within a few miles of Ibwiri — a devastation so com- 
plete that there was not one native hut standing be- 
tween Ugarrowwa's and Ibwiri, and what had not been 
destroyed by the slaves of Ugarrowwa and Abed bin 
Salim the elephants had destroyed, and turned the 
whole region Into a horrible wilderness. But at Ibwiri 
we were beyond the utmost reach of the destroyers. 
We were on virgin soil in a populous region abounding 



472 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

with food. Our suffering from hunger, which began 
on the 31st of August, terminated on the 12th of 
November. Ourselves and men were skeletons. Out 
of three hundred and eighty-nine we now only num- 
bered one hundred and seventy-four, several of whom 
seemed to have no hope of life left. A halt was there- 
fore ordered for the people to recuperate. Hitherto 
our people were skeptical of what we told them. The 
suffering had been so awful, calamities so numerous, 
the forest so endless apparently, that they refused to 
believe that by and by we should see plains and cattle 
and the Nyanza and the white man, Emin Pasha. We 
felt as though we were dragging them along with a 
chain around our necks. * Beyond these raiders lies a 
country untouched, where food is abundant and where 
you will forget your miseries. So cheer up, boys ! Be 
men ; press on a little faster.' They turned a deaf ear 
to our prayers and entreaties — for, driven by hunger 
and suffering, they sold their rifles and equipments for 
a few ears of Indian corn, deserted with the ammuni- 
tion, and were altogether demoralized. Perceiving 
that prayers and entreaties and mild punishments were 
of no avail, I then resorted to visit upon the wretches 
the death penalty. Two of the worst cases were ac- 
cordingly taken and hung in presence of all. 

" We halted thirteen days in Ibwiri, and revelled on 
fowls, goats, bananas, corn, sweet potatoes, yams, 
beans, etc. The supplies were inexhaustible, and the 
people glutted themselves. The effect was such that I 
had a hundred and seventy-three — one was killed by 
an arrow — mostly sleek and robust men, when I set 
put for the Albert Nyanza on the 24th of November, 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 473 

"There were still a hundred and twenty-six miles 
between us and the lake ; but, given food, such a dis- 
tance seemed nothing. 

"On the 1st of December we sighted the open 
country from the top of a ridge connected with Mount 
Pisorah — so named from our first view of the land of 
promise and plenty. On the 5th of December we 
emerged upon the plains, and the deadly gloomy forest 
was behind us. After a hundred and sixty days of 
continuous gloom we saw the light of broad day shin- 
ing all around us, and making all things beautiful. We 
thought we had never seen grass so green or country 
so lovely. The men literally yelled and leaped with 
joy, and raced over the ground with their burdens. 
Ah ! this was the old spirit of former expeditions suc- 
cessfully completed all of a sudden revived ! 

"Woe betide the native aggressor we may meet, 
however powerful he may be ; with such a spirit the 
men will fling themselves like wolves on sheep. Num- 
bers will not be considered. It had been the eternal 
forests that had made the abject, slavish creatures, so 
brutally plundered by Arab slaves at KIlonga-Longa's. 

"On the 9th we came to the country of the powerful 
chief Mozambonl. The villages were scattered over a 
great extent of country so thickly that there was no 
other road except through their villages or fields. From 
a long distance the natives had sighted us and were 
prepared. We seized a hill as soon as we arrived in 
the centre of a mass of villages about 4 P. M. on the 
9th of December and occupied it, building a zariba as 
fast as bill-hooks could cut brushwood. The war cries 
were terrible from hill to hill; they were sent pealing 



474 STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

across the Intervening valleys ; the people gathered by 
hundreds from every point; war-horns and drums 
announced that a struggle was about to take place. 
Such natives as were too bold we checked with but 
little effort, and a slight skirmish ended In us captur- 
ing a cow, the first beef tasted since we left the ocean. 
The night passed peacefully, both sides preparing for 
the morrow. On the morning of the loth we attempted 
to open negotiations. The natives were anxious to 
know who we were, and we were anxious to glean 
news of the land that threatened to ruin the expedi- 
tion. Hours were passed talking, both parties keep- 
ing a respectable distance apart. The natives said 
they were subject to Uganda; but that Kabba-Rega 
was their real King, MozambonI holding the country 
for Kabba-Rega. They finally accepted cloth and brass 
rods to show their King MozambonI, and his answer 
was to be given next day. In the meantime all hostili- 
ties were to be suspended. 

"The morning of the nth dawned, and at 8 A. M. 
we were startled at hearing a man proclaiming that it 
was Mozambonl's wish that we should be driven back 
from the land. The proclamation was received by the 
valley around our neighborhood with deafening cries. 
Their word 'kanwana' signifies to make peace, *kur- 
wana' signifies war. We were therefore in doubt, or 
rather we hoped we had heard wrongly. We sent an 
Interpreter a little nearer to ask if it was kanwana or 
kurwana. Kurwana, they responded, and to emphasize 
the term two arrows were shot at him, which dissipated 
all doubt. Our hill stood between a lofty range of 
hills and a lower range. On one side of us was a 



THROUGH THE WK.DS OF AFRICA. 475 

narrow valley two hundred and fifty yards wide; on the 
other side the valley was three miles wide. East and 
west of us the valley broadened into an extensive 
plain. The higher range of hills was lined with hun- 
dreds preparing to descend ; the broader valley was 
already mustering its hundreds. There was no time 
to lose. A body of forty men were sent, under Lieuten- 
ant Stairs, to attack the broader valley. Mr. Jephson 
was sent with thirty men east; a choice body of sharp- 
shooters was sent to test the courage of those descend- 
ing the slope of the highest range. Stairs pressed on, 
crossed a deep and narrow river in the face of hun- 
dreds of natives, and assaulted the first village and 
took it. The sharpshooters did their work effectively, 
and drove the descending natives rapidly up the slope 
until it became a general flight. Meantime, Mr, 
Jephson was not idle. He marched straight up the 
valley east, driving the people back, and taking their 
villages as he went. By 3 P. M. there was not a native 
visible anywhere, except on one small hill about a mile 
and a half west of us. 

"On the morning of the 12th we continued our 
march. During the day we had four little fights. On 
the 13th marched straight east; attacked by new forces 
every hour until noon, when we halted for refresh- 
ments. These we successfully overcame. 

"At I P. M. we resumed our march. Fifteen min- 
utes later I cried out, 'Prepare yourself for a sight of 
the Nyanza.' The men murmured and doubted, and 
said, 'Why does the master continually talk to us in 
this way? Nyanza, Indeed! Is not this a plain, and 
can we not see mountains at least four days' march 



47^ Stanley's story; or, 

ahead of us?* At 1.30 P. M. the Albert Nyanza was 
below them. Now it was my turn to jeer and scoff at 
the doubters; but as I was about to ask them what they 
saw, so many came to kiss my hands and beg my 
pardon, that I could not say a word. This was my 
reward. The mountains, they said, were the moun- 
tains of Unyoro, or rather its lofty plateau wall. 
Kavali, the objective point of the expedition, was six 
miles from us as the crow flies. 

"We were at an altitude of five thousand two hun- 
dred feet above the sea. The Albert Nyanza was over 
two thousand nine hundred below us. We stood in 
1° 20' N. latitude; the south end of the Nyanza lay 
largely mapped about six miles south of this position. 
Right across to the eastern shore every dent in its low, 
flat shore was visible ; and traced like a silver snake on 
a dark ground was the tributary Laniliki, flowing into 
the Albert from the southwest. 

"After a short halt to enjoy the prospect, we com- 
menced the rugged and stony descent. Before the 
rearguard had descended one hundred feet, the natives 
of the plateau we had just left poured after them. 
Had they shown as much courage and perseverance 
on the plain as they now exhibited, we might have been 
seriously delayed. The rearguard was kept very busy 
until within a few hundred feet of the Nyanza plain. 
We camped at the foot of the plateau wall, the aner- 
oids reading two thousand five hundred feet above 
sea-level. A night attack was made on us, but our 
sentries sufficed to drive these natives away. 

"At 9 A. M. of the 14th we approached the village 
of Kakongo, situate at the southwest corner of the 



THROULrH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 477 

Albert Lake. Three hours were spent by us attempt- 
ing to make friends. We signally failed. They would 
not allow us to go to the lake, because we might 
frighten their cattle. They would not exchange blood- 
brotherhood with us, because they never heard of any 
good people coming from the west side of the lake. 
They would not accept any present from us, because 
they did not know who we were. They would give us 
water to drink, and they would show us our road up to 
Nyamsassie. But from these singular people we 
learned that they had heard there was a white man at 
Unyoro, but they had never heard of any white men 
being on the west side, nor had they seen any steamers 
on the lake. There were no canoes to be had, except 
such as would hold the men, etc. 

"There was no excuse for quarreling; the people 
were civil enough, but they did not want us near them. 
We therefore were shown the path and followed It a 
few miles, when we camped about half a mile from the 
lake. We began to consider our position, with the 
light thrown upon it by the conversation with the 
Kakongo natives. My couriers from Zanzibar had 
evidently not arrived, or, I presume, Emin Pasha with 
his two steamers would have paid the southwest side 
of the lake a visit to prepare the natives for our com- 
ing. My boat was at Kilonga-Longa's, one hundred 
and ninety miles distant. There was no canoe obtain- 
able, and to seize a canoe without the excuse of a 
quarrel my conscience would not permit. There was 
no tree anywhere of a size to make a canoe. Wadelai 
was a terrible distance off for an expedition so reduced 
as ours. We had used five cases of cartridges In five 



47^ Stanley's story; or, 

days of fighting on the plain. A month of such fight- 
ing must exhaust our stock. There was no plan sug- 
gested which seemed feasible to me, except that of 
retreating to Ibwiri, build a fort, send a party back to 
Kilonga-Longa's for our boat, store up every load in 
the fort not conveyable, leave a garrison in the fort to 
hold it, and raise corn for us; march back again to 
Albert Lake, and send the boat to search for Emin 
Pasha. This was the plan which, after lengthy discus- 
sions with my ofificers, I resolved upon. 

'*On the 15th we marched to the site of Kavali, on 
the west side of the lake. Kavali had years ago been 
destroyed. At 4 P. M. the Kakongo natives had fol- 
lowed us and shot several arrows into our bivouac, and 
disappeared as quickly as they came. At 6 P M. we 
began a night march, and by 10 A. M. of the i6th we 
had gained the crest of the plateau once more, 
Kakongo natives having persisted in following us up 
the slope of the plateau. We had one man killed and 
one wounded." 

In speaking of his further movements, he says: — 
"By January 7th we were in Ibwiri once again, and 
after a few days' rest Lieutenant Stairs, with a hundred 
men, sent to Kilonga-Longa's to bring the boat and 
goods up, also Surgeon Parke and Captain Nelson. 
Out of the thirty-eight sick in charge of the officers, 
only eleven men were brought to the fort, the rest had 
died or deserted. On the return of Stairs with the 
boat and goods he was sent to Ugarrowwa's to bring 
up the convalescents there. I granted him thirty-nine 
days' grace. Soon after his departure I was attacked 
with gastritis and an abscess on the arm ; but after a 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 479 

month's careful nursing by Dr. Parke I recovered, and, 
forty-seven days having expired, I set out again for the 
Albert Nyanza, April 2d, accompanied by Messrs. 
Jephson and Parke. Captain Nelson, now recovered, 
was appointed commandant of Fort Bodo in our 
absence, with a garrison of forty-three men and boys. 

"On April 26th we arrived in Mozamboni's country 
once again ; but this time, after solicitation, Mozamboni 
decided to make blood-brotherhood with me. Though 
I had fifty rifles less with me on this second visit, the 
example of Mozamboni was followed by all the other 
chiefs as far as the Nyanza, and every difficulty seemed 
removed. Food was supplied gratis; cattle, goats, 
sheep, and fowls were also given in such abundance 
that our people lived royally. One day's march from 
the Nyanza the natives came from Kavali, and said 
that a white man named 'Malejja' had given their chief 
a black packet to give to me, his son. Would I follow 
them? 'Yes, to-morrow,' I answered, 'and if your 
words are true I will make you rich.' 

" They remained with us that night, telling us won- 
derful stories about ' big ships as large as islands filled 
with men,' etc., which left no doubt in our mind that 
this white man was Emin Pasha. The next day's 
march brought us to the chief Kavali, and after a while 
he handed me a note from Emin Pasha, covered with 
a strip of black American oil-cloth. The note was to 
the effect that as there had been a native rumor to the 
effect that a white man had been seen at the south end 
of the lake, he had gone in his steamer to make inqui- 
ries, but had been unable to obtain reliable information, 
as the natives were terribly afraid of Kabba-Rega, 



48o 



STANLEY S STORY I OR, 



King of Unyoro, and connected every stranger with 
him. However, the wife of the Nyamsassie chief had 
told a native ally of his named Mogo that she had seen 
us in MrusLima (Mozamboni's country). He therefore 
begged me to remain where I was until he could com- 
municate with me. The note was signed ' (Dr.) 
Emin,' and dated March 26th. 

"The next day, April 23d, Mr. Jephson was dis- 
patched with a strong force of men to take the boat to 
the Nyanza. On the 26th the boat's crew sighted 
Mswa station, the southernmost belonging to Emin 
Pasha, and Mr. Jephson was there hospitably received 
by the Egyptian garrison. The boat's crew say that 
they were embraced one by one, and that they never 
had such attention shown to them as by these men, 
who hailed them as brothers." 




CHAPTER XXVII. 

MEETING OF STANLEY AND EMIN PASHA. 

Emin Pasha Arrives by Steamer, Accompanied by Signer Casati and Mr. Jephson 
— Meeting with Stanley — Camp Together for Twenty-six Days — Stanley Re- 
turns to Fort Bodo — Leaves Jephson with Emin — Relieves Captain Nelson and 
Lieutenant Stairs — Terrible Loss Suffered by Lieutenant Stairs' Party — Leaves 
Fort Bodo for Kilonga-Longa's and Ugarrowwa — The Latter Deserted — Meets 
the Rear Column of the Expedition, a Week Later, at Bunalya — Meets Bonny 
and Learns of the Death of Major Barttelot — Terrible Wreck of the Rear 
Column — Seventy-one out of Two Hundred and Fifty-seven left — The Record 
one of Disaster, Desertion and Death — Interview with Emin — Emin's Condition 
— Emin and Jephson Surrounded by the Rebels and Taken Prisoners — Stanley 
Returns a Second Time to Albert Nyanza — Emin and Jephson Relieved by Stan- 
ley — Letter of Stanley Graphically Describing the Forest Region Traversed 
by Him — Sketches the Course of the Aruwimi — A Retrospect of his Thrilling 
Experiences as Far as the Victoria Nyanza, August 28th, 1889. 

" On the 29th of April we once again reached the 
bivouac ground occupied by us on the i6th of Decem- 
ber, and at 5 P. M. of that day I saw the Khedive 
steamer about seven miles away steaming toward us. 
Soon after 7 P. M. Emin Pasha and Signor Casati 
and Mr. Jephson arrived at our camp, where they were 
heartily welcomed by all of us,'' writes Mr. Stanley. 

" The next day we moved to a better camping-place, 
about three miles above Nyamsassie, and at this spot 
Emin Pasha also made his camp. We were together 
until the 25th of May. On that day I left him, leaving 
Mr. Jephson, three Soudanese and two Zanzibaris in 

481 



482 Stanley's story; or, 

his care, and in return he caused to accompany mc 
three of his irregulars and one hundred and two Mahdi 
natives as porters. 

" Fourteen days later I was at Fort Bodo. At the 
fort were Captain Nelson and Lieutenant Stairs. The 
latter had returned from Ugarrowwa's twenty-two 
days after I had set out for the lake, April 2d, bringing 
with him, alas ! only sixteen out of fifty-six. All the 
rest were dead. My twenty couriers whom I had sent 
with letters to Major Barttelot had safely left Ugar- 
rowwa's for Yambuya on March 1 6th. 

"Fort Bodo was in a flourishing condition. Nearly 
ten acres were under cultivation. One crop of Indian 
corn had been harvested, and was in the granaries. 
They had just commenced planting again. 

"On the 1 6th of June I left Fort Bodo with a hun- 
dred and eleven Zanzibaris and a hundred and one of 
Emin Pasha's people. Lieutenant Stairs had been 
appointed commandant of the fort. Nelson second in 
command, and Surgeon Parke medical officer. The 
garrison consisted of fifty-nine rifles. I had thus de- 
prived myself of all my officers that I should not be 
encumbered with baggage and provisions and medi- 
cines, which would have to be taken if accompanied by 
Europeans, and every carrier was necessary for the 
vast stores left with Major Barttelot On the 24th of 
June we reached Kilonga-Longa's, and July 19th 
Ugarrowwa's. The latter station was deserted. Ugar- 
rowwa, having gathered as much ivory as he could ob- 
tain from that district, had proceeded down river about 
three months before. On leaving Fort Bodo I had 
loaded every carrier with about sixty pounds of corn. 



il 




■^>s^ i^^'.. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 483 

SO that we had been able to pass through the wilder- 
ness unscathed. 

" Passing on down river as fast as we could go, 
daily expecting to meet the couriers who had been 
stimulated to exert themselves for a reward of ten 
pounds per head, or the Major himself leading an army 
of carriers, we indulged ourselves in these pleasing 
anticipations as we neared the goal. 

"On the loth of August we overtook Ugarrowwa 
with an immense flotilla of fifty-seven canoes, and to 
our wonder our couriers now reduced to seventeen. 
They related an awful story of hair-breadth escapes and 
tragic scenes. Three of their number had been slain, 
two were still feeble from their wounds, and all except 
five bore on their bodies the scars of arrow wounds. 

" A week later, on August 1 7th, we met the rear 
column of the expedition at a place called Bunalya, or, 
as the Arabs have corrupted it, Unarya. There was a 
white man at the gate of the stockade whom I at first 
thought was Mr. Jamieson, but a nearer view revealed 
the features of Mr. Bonny, who left the medical ser- 
vice of the army to accompany us. 

" * Well, my dear Bonny, where is the Major?' 

" * He is dead, sir ; shot by the Manyuema about a 
month ago.' 

" * Good God ! And Mr. Jamieson ?' 

" ' He has gone to Stanley Falls to try and get some 
more men from Tippu-Tib.' 

"'And Mr. Troup?' 

" ' Mr. Troup has gone home, sir, invalided.' 

" * Hem ! well, where is Ward ?* 

" ' Mr. W^rd is at Bangala, sir.' 



4'84 Stanley's story; or, 

" ' Heavens alive ! then you are the only one here ?' 

" ' Yes, sir.' 

" I found the rear column a terrible wreck. Out of 
two hundred and fifty-seven men there were only 
seventy-one remaining. Out of seventy-one only fifty- 
two, on mustering them, seemed fit for service, and 
these mostly were scarecrows. The advance had per- 
formed the march from Yambuya to Bunalya in sixteen 
days, despite native opposition. The rear column 
performed the same distance in forty-three days. Ac- 
cording to Mr. Bonny, during the thirteen months and 
twenty days that had elapsed since I had left Yam- 
buya, the record is only one of disaster, desertion, and 
death. I have not the heart to go into the details, 
many of which are incredible, and, indeed, I have not 
the time, for, excepting Mr. Bonny, I have no one to 
•assist me in reorganizing the expedition. There are 
still far more loads than I can carry, at the same time 
articles needful are missing. For instance, I left Yam- 
buya with only a short campaigning kit, leaving my 
reserve of clothing and personal effects in charge of 
the officers. In December some deserters from the 
advance column reached Yambuya to spread the re- 
port that I was dead. They had no papers with them, 
but the officers seemed to accept the report of these 
deserters as a fact, and in January Mr. Ward, at an 
officers' mess meeting, proposed that my instructions 
should be cancelled. The only one who appears to 
have dissented was Mr. Bonny. Accordingly, my per- 
sonal kit, medicines, soap, candles, and provisions were 
sent down the Congo as ' superfluities !' Thus, after 
making this immense personal sacrifice to relieve them 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 485 

and cheer them up, I find myself naked, and deprived 
of even the necessaries of life in Africa. But, strange 
to say, they have kept two hats and four pairs of boots, 
a flannel jacket ; and I propose to go back to Emin 
Pasha and across Africa with this truly African kit. 
Livmgstone, poor fellow! was all in patches when I met 
him, but it will be the reliever himself who will be in 
patches this time. Fortunately not one of my officers 
will envy me, for their kits are intact — it was only 
myself that was dead. 

" I pray you to say that we were only eighty-two 
days from the Albert Lake to Banalya, and sixty-one 
from Fort Bodo. The distance is not very great — it 
is the people who fail one. Going to Nyanza we felt 
as though we had the tedious task of dragging them ; 
on returning each man knew the road, and did not 
need any stimulus. Between the Nyanza and here we 
only lost three men — one of which was by desertion. 
I brought a hundred and thirty-one Zanzibaris here, 
and left fifty-nine at Fort Bodo — total, one hundred and 
ninety men out of three hundred and eighty-nine; loss, 
fifty per cent. At Yambuya I left two hundred and fifty- 
seven men; there are only seventy-one left, ten of whom 
will never leave this camp — loss over two hundred and 
seventy per cent. This proves that, though the suffer- 
ings of the advance were unprecedented, the mortality 
was not so great as in camp at Yambuya. The sur- 
vivors of the march are all robust, while the survivors 
of the rear column are thin and most unhealthy-looking. 

" I have thus rapidly sketched out our movements 
since June 28th, 1887. I wish I had the leisure to fur- 
nish more details, but I cannot find the time. I write 
37 



486 Stanley's story; or, 

this amid the hurry and bustle of departure, and amid 
constant interruptions. You will, however, have 
gathered from this letter an idea of the nature of the 
country traversed by us. We were a hundred and 
sixty days in the forest — one continuous, unbroken, 
compact forest. The grass-land was traversed by us 
in eight days. The limits of the forest along the edge 
of the grass-land are well marked. We saw it ex- 
tending northeasterly, with its curves and bays and 
capes, just like a sea-shore. Southwesterly it preserved 
the same character. North and south the forest area 
extends from Nyangwe to the southern borders of the 
Monbuttu ; east and west it embraces all from the 
Congo, at the mouth of the Aruwimi, to about east 
longitude 29°-40°. How far west beyond the Congo 
the forest reaches I do not know. The superficial 
extent of the tract thus described — totally covered by 
forest — is two hundred and forty-six thousand square 
miles. North of the Congo, between Upoto and the 
Aruwimi, the forest embraces another twenty thousand 
square miles. 

" Between Yambuya and the Nyanza we came across 
five distinct languages. The last is that which is 
spoken by the Wanyoro, Wanyankori, Wanya, Ruanda, 
and people of Karangwe and Ukerwee. 

" The land slopes gently from the crest of the pla- 
teau above the Nyanza down to the Congo River from 
an altitude of five thousand five hundred feet to one 
thousand four hundred feet above the sea. North and 
south of our track through the grass-land the face of 
the land was much broken by groups of cones or 
isolated mounts or ridges. North we saw no land 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 487 

higher than about six thousand feet above the sea; but 
bearing two hundred and fifteen degrees magnetic, at 
the distance of about fifty miles from our camp on the 
Nyanza, we saw a towering mountain, its summit cov- 
ered with snow, and probably seventeen or eighteen 
thousand feet above the sea. It is called Ruevenzori, 
and will probably prove a rival to Kilimanjaro. I am 
not sure that it may not prove to be the Gordon- 
Bennett Mountain in Gambaragara; but there are two 
reasons for doubting it to be the same — first, it is a 
little too far west for the position of the latter, as given 
by me in 1876 ; and, secondly, we saw no snow on the 
Gordon-Bennett. I might mention a third, which is 
that the latter is a perfect cone apparently, while the 
Ruevenzori is an oblong mount, nearly level on the 
summit, with two ridges extending northeast and 
southwest. 

'' I have met only three natives who have seen the 
lake toward the south. They agree that it is large, but 
not so large as the Albert Nyanza. 

" The Aruwimi becomes known as the Suhall about 
one hundred miles above Yambuya ; as it nears the 
Nepoko it is called the Nevoa ; beyond its confluence 
with the Nepoko it Is known as the No-Welle ; three 
hundred miles from the Congo it is called the Itiri, 
which is soon changed into the Ituri, which name it 
retains to its source. Ten minutes' march from the 
Ituri waters we saw the Nyanza, like a mirror in its 
immense gulf 

" Before closing my letter let me touch more at large 
on the subject which brought me to this land — viz., 
Emin Pasha. 



488 Stanley's story; or, 

" The Pasha has two battalions of regulars under 
him — the first, consisting of about seven hundred and 
fifty rifies, occupies Duffle, Honyu, Lahore, Muggi, 
Kirri, Bedden, Rejaf ; the second battalion, consisting 
of six hundred and forty men, guard the stations of 
Wadelai, Fatiko, Mahagi, and Mswa, a line of commu- 
nication along the Nyanza and Nile about one hundred 
and eighty miles in length. In the interior west of the 
Nile he retains three or four small stations — fourteen 
in all. Besides these two battalions he has quite a 
respectable force of irregulars, sailors, artisans, clerks, 
servants. ' Altogether,' he said, * if I consent to go 
away from here we shall have about eight thousand 
people with us.' 

" ' Were I in your place I would not hesitate one 
moment or be a second in doubt what to do.' 

"'What you say is quite true; but we have such a 
large number of women and children, probably ten 
thousand people altogether. How can they all be 
brought out of here ? We shall want a great number 
of carriers.' 

"'Carriers! carriers for what?' I asked. 

" ' For the women and children. You surely would 
not leave them, and they cannot travel ? ' 

" * The women must walk. It will do them more 
good than harm. As for the little children, load them 
on the donkeys. I hear you have about two hundred 
of them. Your people will not travel very far the first 
month, but little by little they will get accustomed to it. 
Our Zanzibar women crossed Africa on my second expe- 
dition. Why cannot your black women do the same.^^ 
Have no fear of them ; they will do better than the men.' 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 489 

" ' They would require a vast amount of provision 
for the road.' 

" 'True, but you have some thousands of cattle, I 
believe. Those will furnish beef. The countries 
through which we pass must furnish grain and vege- 
table food.* 

" * Well, well, we will defer further talk till to-mor- 
row.' 

''May 1st, 1888. — Halt in camp at Nsabe. The 
Pasha came ashore from the steamer Khedive about 
I P. M., and In a short time we commenced our con- 
versation again. Many of the arguments used above 
were repeated, and he said : 

" ' What you told me yesterday has led me to think 
that it is best we should retire from here. The Egyp- 
tians are very willing to leave. There are of these 
about one hundred men, besides their women and 
children. Of these there is no doubt; and even if I 
stayed here I should be glad to be rid of them, because 
they undermine my authority and nullify all my 
endeavors for retreat. When I informed them that 
Khartoum had fallen and Gordon Pasha was slain, they 
always told the Nubians that it was a concocted story, 
that some day we should see the steamers ascend the 
river for their relief. But of the regulars who com- 
pose the first and second battalions I am extremely 
doubtful ; they have led such a free and happy life here 
that they would demur at leaving a country where they 
have enjoyed luxuries they cannot command in Egypt. 
The soldiers are married, and several of them have 
harems. Many of the irregulars would also retire and 
follow me, Now, supposing the regulars refuse to 



490 STANLEY S STORY ; OR, 

leave, you can imagine that my position would be a 
difficult one. Would I be right in leaving them to 
their fate? Would it not be consigning them all to 
ruin? I should have to leave them their arms and 
ammunition, and on returning all discipline would be 
at an end. Disputes would arise, and factions would 
be formed. The more ambitious would aspire to be 
chiefs by force, and from these rivalries would spring 
hate and mutual slaughter until there would be none 
of them left.' 

" ' Supposing you resolve to stay, what of the Egyp- 
tians ? ' I asked. 

" ' Oh ! these I shall have to ask you to be good 
enough to take with you.' 

" ' Now, will you, Pasha, do me the favor to ask 
Captain Casati if we are to have the pleasure of his 
company to the sea, for we have been instructed to 
assist him also should we meet ? ' 

" Captain Casati answered through Emin Pasha : 

" ' What the Governor Emin decides upon shall be the 
rule of conduct for me also. If the Governor stays, I 
stay. If the Governor goes, I go.' 

" ' Well, I see, Pasha, that in the event of your stay- 
ing your responsibilities will be great.' 

" A laugh. The sentence was translated to Casati, 
and the gallant Captain replied : 

" ' Oh ! I beg pardon, but I absolve the Pasha from 
all responsibility connected with me, because I am gov- 
erned by my own choice entirely.' 

** Thus day after day I recorded faithfully the inter- 
views I had with Emin Pasha ; but these extracts reveal 
as much as is necessary for you to understand the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 49 1 

position. I left Mr. Jephson thirteen of my Soudanese, 
and sent a message to be read to the troops, as the 
Pasha requested. Everything else is left until I return 
with the united expedition to the Nyanza. 

"Within two months the Pasha proposed to visit 
Fort Bodo, taking Mr. Jephson with him. At Fort 
Bodo I have left instructions to the officers to destroy 
the fort and accompany the Pasha to the Nyanza. I 
hope to meet them all again on the Nyanza, as I intend 
making a short cut to the Nyanza along a new road." 

In a subsequent letter wherein he refers to his return 
to the rear, to bring up those of his forces that had 
been left behind, he says : 

"This has certainly been the most extraordinary 
expedition I have ever led into Africa. 

" A regular divinity seems to have hedged us while 
we journeyed. I say it with all reverence. It has 
impelled us whither it would, effected its own will, but 
nevertheless guided us and protected us. 

"What can you make of this, for instance? On 
August 17th, 1887, ^11 t^^^ officers of the rear column 
are united at Yambuya. They have my letter of in- 
structions before them, but instead of preparing for 
the morrow's march to follow our track, they decide to 
wait at Yambuya, which decision initiates the most 
awful season any community of men ever endured in 
Africa or elsewhere. 

" The results are that three-quarters of their force 
die of slow poison. Their commander is murdered, 
and the second officer dies soon after of sickness and 
grief. Another officer is wasted to a skeleton and 
obliged to return home. A fourth is sent to wander 



492 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

aimlessly up and down the Congo, and the survivor is 
found in such a fearful pest-hole that we dare not 
describe its horrors. 

" On the same date, one hundred and fifty miles 
away, the officer of the day leads three hundred and 
thirty-three men of the advanced column into the bush, 
loses the path and all consciousness of his whereabouts, 
and every step he takes only leads him further astray. 
His people become frantic; his white companions, 
vexed and irritated by the sense of the evil around 
them, cannot devise any expedient to relieve him. 
They are surrounded by cannibals, and poison-tipped 
arrows thin their numbers. 

" Meantime, I, in command of the river column, am 
anxiously searching up and down the river in four 
different direcdons ; through forests my scouts are 
seeking for them, but not until the sixth day was I 
successful in finding them. 

" Taking the same month and the same date in 1888, 
a year later, on August 17th, I listen, horror-stricken, to 
the tale of the last surviving officer of the rear column 
at Banalya, and am told of nothing but death and 
disaster, disaster and death, death and disaster. I see 
nothing but horrible forms of men smitten with disease, 
bloated, disfigured and scarred, while the scene in the 
camp, infamous for the murder of poor Barttelot Barth 
four weeks before, is simply sickening. 

" On the same day, six hundred miles west of this 
camp, Jamieson, worn out with fatigue, sickness and 
sorrow, breathes his last. 

"On the next day, August i8th, six hundred miles 
^ast, Emin Pasha and my officer Jephson are suddenly 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 493 

surrounded by Infuriated rebels, who menace them with 
loaded rifles and Instant death ; but fortunately they 
relent and only make them prisoners, to be delivered 
to the Mahdists. 

" Having saved Bonny out of the jaws of death, we 
arrive a second time at Albert Nyanza, to find Emin 
Pasha and Jephson prisoners in daily expectation of 
their doom. 

"Jephson's own letters will describe his anxiety. 
Not until both were in my camp and the Egyptian 
fugitives under our protection, did I begin to see that 
I was only carrying out a higher plan than mine. My 
own designs were constantly frustrated by unhappy 
circumstances. I endeavored to steer my course as 
direct as possible, but there was an unaccountable 
influence at the helm." 

In still another letter he gives us a most graphic 
account of this vast forest region. " Until we pene- 
trated and marched through It," he writes, " this region 
was entirely unexplored and untrodden by either white 
or Arab." 

"While in England, considering the best routes 
open to the Nyanza (Albert), I thought I was very 
liberal in allowing myself two weeks' march to cross 
the forest region lying between the Congo and the 
grass-land ; but you may Imagine our feelings when 
month after month saw us marching, tearing, plowing, 
cutting through that same continuous forest. It took 
us one hundred and sixty days before we could say, 
'Thank God ! we are out of the darkness at last.' At 
one time we were all — whites and blacks — almost 
'done up.' September, October, and half of that 



494 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

month of November, 1887, will not be forgotten by us. 
October will be specially memorable to us for the 
sufferings we endured. Our officers are heartily sick 
of the forest; but the loyal blacks, a band of one hun- 
dred and thirty, followed me once again into the wild, 
trackless forest, with its hundreds of inconveniences, 
to assist their comrades of the rear column. Try and 
imagine some of these inconveniences. Take a thick 
Scottish copse, dripping with rain ; imagine this copse 
to be a mere undergrowth, nourished under the im- 
penetrable shades of ancient trees, ranging from one 
hundred to one hundred and eighty feet high; briers 
and thorns abundant ; lazy creeks, meandering through 
the depths of the jungle, and sometimes a deep afflu- 
ent of a great river. Imagine this forest and jungle 
in all stages of decay and growth — old trees falling, 
leaning perilously over, fallen prostrate ; ants and 
insects of all kinds, sizes, and colors murmuring 
around; monkeys and chimpanzees above; queer noises 
of birds and animals ; crashes in the jungle as troops 
of elephants rush away; dwarfs with poisoned arrows 
securely hidden behind some buttress or in some dark 
recess; strong, brown-bodied aborigines with terribly 
sharp spears, standing poised, still as dead stumps ; 
rain pattering down on you every other day in the 
year ; an impure atmosphere, with its dread conse- 
quences, fever and dysentery ; gloom throughout the 
day, and darkness almost palpable throughout the 
night; and then, if you will imagine such a forest, 
extending the entire distance from Plymouth to Peter- 
head, you will have a fair idea of some of the incon- 
veniences endured by us from June 28th to December 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 495 

5th, 1887, and from June ist, 1888, to the present date, 
to continue again from the present date till about 
December loth, 1888, when I hope then to say a last 
farewell to the Congo forest. 

" Now that we have gone through and through this 
forest region, I only feel a surprise that I did not give 
a greater latitude to my ideas respecting its extent ; for 
had we thought of it, it is only what might have been 
deduced from our knowledge of the great sources of 
moisture necessary to supply the forest with the requis- 
ite sap and vitality. Think of the large extent of the 
South Atlantic Ocean, whose vapors are blown during 
nine months of the year in this direction. Think of 
the broad Congo, varying from one to sixteen miles 
wide, which has a stretch of one thousand four hun- 
dred miles, supplying another immeasurable quantity 
of moisture, to be distilled into rain, and mist, and dew 
over this insatiable forest ; and then another six hun- 
dred miles of the Aruwimi or Ituri itself, and then you 
will cease to wonder that there are about one hundred 
and fifty days of rain every year in this region, and 
that the Congo forest covers such a wide area. . 

" Until we set foot on the grass-land, something like 
fifty miles west of the Albert Nyanza, we saw nothing 
that looked like a smile, or a kind thought, or a moral 
sensation. The aborigines are wild, utterly savage, 
and incorrigibly vindictive. The dwarfs — called Wam- 
butti — are worse still, far worse. Animal life is like- 
wise so wild and shy that no sport is to be enjoyed. 
The gloom of the forest is perpetual. The face of the 
river, reflecting its black walls of vegetation, is dark 
and sombre. The sky one-half of the time every day 



49 6 STANLEY^S STORY; OR, 

resembles a winter sky In England ; the face of Nature 
and life is fixed and joyless. If the sun charges 
through the black clouds enveloping it, and a kindly 
wind brushes the masses of vapor below the horizon, 
and the bright light reveals our surroundings, it is only 
to tantalize us with a short-lived vision of brilliancy 
and beauty of verdure. 

" Emerging from the forest, finally, we all became 
enraptured. Like a captive unfettered and set free, 
we rejoiced at sight of the blue cope of heaven, and 
freely bathed in the warm sunshine, and aches and 
gloomy thoughts and unwholesome ideas were ban- 
ished. You have heard how the London citizen, after 
months of devotion to business in the gaseous atmos- 
phere In that great city, falls Into raptures at sight of 
the green fields and hedges, meadows and trees ; and 
how his emotions, crowding on his dazed senses, are 
indescribable. Indeed, I have seen a Derby day once, 
and I fancied then that I only saw madmen^for great, 
bearded, hoary-headed fellows, though well dressed 
enough, behaved in a most idiotic fashion, amazing me 
quite. Well, on this 5th of December we became 
suddenly smitten with madness in the same manner. 
Had you seen us you would have thought we had lost 
our senses, or that * Legion' had entered and taken 
possession of us. We raced with our loads over a 
wide, unfenced field (like an English park for the soft- 
ness of Its grass), and herds of buffalo, eland, roan 
antelope, stood on either hand with pointed ears and 
wide eyes, wondering at the sudden wave of human 
beings, yelling with joy, as they issued out of the dark 
depths of the forest. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 497 

" On the confines of this forest, near a village which 
was rich in sugar cane, ripe bananas, tobacco, Indian 
corn, and other productions of aboriginal husbandry, 
we came across an ancient woman lying asleep. I 
believe she was a leper and an outcast, but she was 
undoubtedly ugly, vicious, and old ; and, being old, she 
was obstinate. I practiced all kinds of seductive arts 
to get her to do something besides crossly mumbling, 
but of no avail. Curiosity having drawn toward us 
about a hundred of our people, she fastened fixed eyes 
on one young fellow (smooth-faced and good-looking), 
and smiled. I caused him to sit near her, and she 
became voluble enough — beauty and youth had tamed 
the 'beast.' From her talk we learned that there was 
a powerful tribe, called the Banzanza, with a great king, 
to the northeast of our camp, of whom we might be 
well afraid, as the people were as numerous as grass. 
Had we learned this ten days earlier, I might have 
become anxious for the result ; but it now only drew a 
contemptuous smile from the people — for each one, 
since he had seen the grass-land and evidences of meat, 
had been transformed into a hero. 

"We poured out on the plain a frantic multitude, but 
after an hour or two we became an orderly column. 
Into the emptied villages of the open country we pro- 
ceeded to regale ourselves on melon, rich-flavored 
bananas and plantains, and great pots full of wine. The 
fowls, unaware of the presence of a hungry mob, were 
knocked down, plucked, roasted, or boiled ; the goats, 
meditatively browsing, or chewing the cud, were sud- 
denly seized and decapitated, and the grateful aroma 
of roast meat gratified our senses. An abundance, a 



498 Stanley's story; or, 

prodigal abundance, of good things, had awaited our 
eruption into the grass-land. Every village was well 
stocked with provisions, and even luxuries long denied 
to us. Under such fare the men became most robust, 
diseases healed as if by magic, the weak became strong, 
and there was not a goee-goee or chickenheart left. 
Only the Babusesse, near the main Ituri, were tempted 
to resist the invasion." 

It is not possible yet fully to determine the geograph- 
ical results of the expedition. That they are very great 
and important appears certain. In the brief narratives 
already furnished by Mr. Stanley many facts of value 
and interest appear, adding new details to the map of 
Africa. The Aruwimi, Mr. Stanley says, is also called 
the Ituri, the Dudu, the Biyerre, the Luhali, the Nevva, 
and the Nowelle-Itire. Througrhout several hundred 
miles of Its upper part It Is invariably called the Ituri, 
as It Is by the natives around the Albert Nyanza. 

"The main Ituri, at the distance of six hundred and 
eighty miles from its mouth," says Mr. Stanley, " Is one 
hundred and twenty-five yards wide, nine feet deep, 
and has a current of three knots. It appears to run 
parallel with the Nyanza. Near that group of cones 
and hills affectionately named Mount Schwelnfurth, 
Mount Junker, and Mount Speke, I would place its 
highest source. Draw three or four respectable streams 
draining into it from the crest of the plateau over, 
looking the Albert Nyanza, and two or three respectable 
streams flowing Into it from northwesterly, let the 
main stream flow southwest to near north latitude 1°, 
give It a bow-like form north latitude 1° to north 
latitude 1° 50', then let It flow with curves and bends 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 499 

down to north latitude i ° 1 7' near Yambuya, and you 
have a sketch of the course of the Aruwimi, or Ituri, 
from the highest source down to its mouth, and the 
length of this Congo tributary will be eight hundred 
miles. We have travelled on it and along its banks 
for six hundred and eighty miles ; on our first march 
to the Nyanza for one hundred and fifty-six miles 
along its banks or near its vicinity; we returned to 
obtain our boat from Kilonga-Longa's ; then we con- 
veyed the boat to the Nyanza for as many miles again; 
for four hundred and eighty miles we travelled its flanks 
or voyaged on its waters to hunt up the rear column 
of the expedition ; for as many miles we must retrace 
our steps to the Albert Nyanza for the third time. You 
will, therefore, agree with me that we have sufficient 
knowledge of this river for all practical purposes." 

In a letter, dated South End, Victoria Nyanza, Sep- 
tember 3, 1889, referring to his experiences on the 
Aruwimi, he says : "For the time being you can believe 
me that one day has followed another in striving fully 
against all manner of obstacles, natural and otherwise. 
From the day I left Yambuya to August 28, 1889, ^^e 
day I arrived here, the bare catalogue of incidents 
would fill several quires of foolscap. The catalogue 
of adventures, accidents, mortalities, sufferings from 
fever, and morbid musings over the mischances that 
meet us daily would make a formidable list. You know 
that all the stretch of country between Yambuya and 
this place is an absolute new country except what may 
be measured by five ordinary marches. First, there is 
that dead white of the map now changed to a dead 
black. I mean that the region of earth confined between 



500 



STANLEYS STORY; OR, 



east longitude 25° and south latitude 29° 45' is one 
great compact of a remorselessly sullen forest with a 
growth of an untold number of ages, swarming at 
stated intervals with immense numbers of vicious man- 
eating savages, and crafty, undersized men who were 
unceasing in their annoyance. Then there is that belt 
of grass-land lying between it and Albert Nyanza, 
whose people contested every mile of our advance 
with spirit, and made us think that they were guardians 
of some priceless treasure hidden in the Nyanza shores 
or at war with Emin Pasha and his thousands. Sir 
Percival in search of the Holy Grail could not have met 
with hotter opposition. Three separate times necessity 
compelled us to traverse these unholy regions with 
varying fortunes." 




CHAPTER XXVIII. 

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES EN ROUTE. 

Finds that Baker has Made an Error — Altitudes of Lake Albert and the Blue 
Mountains — Vacovia — Discovers the Lofty Ruevenzori — The Nile or the Congo ? 
—The Semliki River— The Plains of Noongora— The Salt Lakes of Kative— 
New Peoples — Wakonyu of the Great Mountains — The Awamba — Wasonyora — 
Wanyora Bandits — Lake Albert Edward — The Tribes and Shepherd Races 
of the Eastern Uplands — Wamyau Kori — Wanyaruwamba — Wazinya — A Har- 
vest of New Facts — The Importance of Stanley's Addition to the Victoria 
Nyanza. 

Stanley first sighted the Albert Nyanza on Decem- 
ber 13th, 1887. Its southern part lay at the feet of the 
explorer almost like an immense map. He glanced 
rapidly over the grosser details, the lofty plateau, the 
wall of Unyoro to the east and that of Baregga to the 
west, rising nearly three thousand feet above the silver 
water, and between the hills the stretched-out plain, 
seemingly very flat and grassy, with here and there a 
dark clump of brushwood, which, as the plain trended 
southwesterly, became a thin forest. The southwest 
edge of the lake he fixed at nine miles in a direct 
southeasterly line from this place. This will make the 
terminus of the southwest corner 1° 17' N. latitude, by 
prismatic compass, magnetic bearing; of the southeast 
corner, just south of a number of falls, 1° 37'. This 
will make it about 1° 11' 30^ N. latitude, magnetic 
bearing of 1° 48'. 

501 



502 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

Taken from N. latitude i° 25' 30', this about exactly 
describes the line of shore running from the southwest 
corner of the lake to the southeast corner of Albert. 
Baker fixed his position latitude 1° 1 5' N., if we recollect 
rightly. The centre of Mbakovia Terrace bears 1° 
21' 30' magnetic from Stanley's first point of observa- 
tion. This will make Baker's Vacovia about i ° 1 5' 45\ 
allowing 10° west variation. In trying to solve the 
problem of the infinity of Lake Albert, as sketched by 
Baker, and finding that the lake terminus is only four 
miles south of where he stood to view jt "from a little 
hill" and on "a beautifully clear day," one would almost 
feel justified in saying he had never seen the lake. 

But Baker's position of Vacovia proves that he 
actually was there, and the general correctness of his 
outline of the east coast from Vacovia to Magungo 
also proves that he navigated the lake. 

Stanley says: "When we turn our faces northeast we 
say that Baker has done exceedingly well; but when 
we turn them southward our senses in vain try to pene- 
trate the mystery, because our eyes see not what Baker 
saw. With Lieutenant Stairs, Mounteney, Jephson, 
Surgeon Parke, Emin Paslia, Captain Casati, I look 
with my own eyes upon the scene. I find Baker has 
made an error. I am somewhat surprised also at 
Baker's altitudes of Lake Albert and the Blue Moun- 
tains and at the breadth attributed by him to the lake. 
The shore opposite Vacovia is ten and a quarter miles 
distant, not forty or fifty miles. The Blue Mountains 
are nothing else but a west upland, the highest cone 
or hill beinof not above six thousand feet above the 
level of the sea. The altitude of Lake Albert by the 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 503 

aneroid and the boiling point will not exceed two 
thousand three hundred and fifty feet." 

Last of all, away to the southwest, while Baker has 
sketched his Infinite stretch of lake, there rises, about 
forty miles from Vacovia, an Immense snowy moun- 
tain, a solid, square-browed mass, with an almost level 
summit between two lofty ridges. If It were a beauti- 
fully clear day he should have seen this, being nearer 
to It by thirteen geographical miles than Stanley was. 

"About the lake discovered by me In 1876 I can 
learn very little from the natives," says Stanley. "At the 
Chief of K3 vallis I saw two natives who came from 
that region. One of them hailed from Unyampaka 
and the other from Usongora. The first said that the 
Albert Lake is much larger than that.near Unyampaka. 
The other said that the southern lake Is the larger, as it 
takes two days to cross It. He describes it as being a 
month's march from Kavallls. Their accounts differ so 
much that one is almost tempted to believe that there 
are two lakes, the smaller one near Unyampaka and 
connected by a river or channel with that of Usongora. 

" My Interest is greatly excited, as you may imagine, 
by the discovery of Ruevenzorl, the snowy mountain, 
and a possible rival of Kilimanjaro. Remember that 
we are in north latitude, and that this mountain must 
be near or on the Equator itself; that it is summer 
now, and that we saw it in the latter part of May ; that 
the snow-line was about estimated at only one thousand 
feet below the summit. 

" Hence I conclude that It Is not Mount Gordon- 
Bennett seen in December, 1876 — though it may be so 
- — which the natives said had only snow occasionally. 



504 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

"At the time I saw the latter there was no snow 
visible. It is a little further east, according to the 
position I gave it, than Ruevenzori. All questions 
which this mountain naturally give rise to will be set- 
tied, I hope, by this expedition before it returns to the 
sea. 

" If at all near my line of march, its length, height 
and local history will be ascertained. Many rivers will 
be found to issue from this curious land between the 
two Muta Nziges. What rivers are they ? Do they 
belong to the Nile or the Congo? There is no river 
going east or southeast from this section except the 
Katonga and Kafur, and both must receive, if any, but 
a very small supply from Mount Gordon-Bennett and 
the Ruevenzori. The new mountain must therefore be 
drained principally south and west — if the south 
streams have connection with the lake, south ; if west, 
Semiliki, a tributary of Lake Albert, and some river 
flowing to the Congo must receive the rest of its 
waters. Then, if the lake south receives any consid- 
erable supply, the interest deepens. 

" Does the lake discharge its surplus to the Nile or 
the Congo ? If to the former, then it will be of great 
interest to you, and you will have to admit that Lake 
Victoria is not the main source of the Nile. If to the 
Congo, then the lake will be the source of the river 
Lowa or Loa, since it is the largest tributary to the 
Congo from the east between the Aruwimi and 
Luama." 

Of the many geographical discoveries that have 
resulted from the expedition just completed, the follow- 
ing may be noted as among the most prominent: 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 505 

The snowy ranges of Ruevenzori, the Cloud King, or 
Rain-creator; the Semliki River, the plains of Noon- 
gora, the salt lakes of Kative ; new peoples, Wakonyu 
of the Great Mountains ; dwellers of the rich forest 
regions, the Awamba, the fine-featured Wasonyora, 
the Wanyora bandits, and then Lake Albert Edward, 
the tribes and shepherd races of the Eastern 
Uplands, then Wanyankori, besides Wanyaruwamba 
and Wazlnya. 

Stanley found that Albert Nyanza does not extend 
as far south by considerable as Baker represented, 
and as has generally been believed. He discovered a 
new lake, which he named Albert Edward Nyanza, 
southwest of Albert Nyanza, and connected with it by 
a considerable river, which now bears the name Sem- 
liki. This new lake must thus be considered the 
source of the White Nile. And he has found that 
Victoria Nyanza extends much farther southwest than 
has been supposed, and approaches within one hundred 
and fifty-five miles of Tanganyika. 

In a letter, under a recent date, giving some details 
of his later experiences, Stanley glowingly refers to 
his geographical discoveries : 

" Over and above the happy ending of our appointed 
duties, we have not been unfortunate in geographical 
discoveries. The Aruwimi Is now known from its 
source to its bourne. The great Congo forest, cover- 
ing as large an area as France and the Iberian penin- 
sula, we can now certify to be an absolute fact. The 
mountains of the Moon this time, beyond the least 
dor.bt, have been located, and Ruevenzori, ' the Cloud 
King,' robed in eternal snow, has been seen and its 



5o6 Stanley's story; or, 

flanks explored, and some of Its shoulders ascended, 
Mounts Gordon-Bennett and Mackinnon cones being 
but giant sentries, warding off the approach to the 
inner area of ' the Cloud King.' 

"On the southwest of the range the connection be- 
tween Albert Edward Nyanza and Albert Nyanza has 
been discovered, and the extent of the former lake is 
now known for the first time. Range after range of 
mountains have been traversed, separated by such tracts 
or pasture land as would make your cowboys out West 
mad with envy. 

"And right under the burning Equator we have fed 
on blackberries and bilberries, and quenched our thirst 
with crystal water fresh from snow-beds. We have 
also been able to add nearly six thousand square miles 
of water to Victoria Nyanza. 

"Our naturalist will expatiate upon the new species 
of animals, birds and plants he has discovered. Our 
surgeon will tell what he knows of the climate and its 
amenities. It will take us all we know how to say what 
new store of knowledge has been gathered from this 
unexpected field of discoveries. 

"I always suspected that in the central regions 
between the equatorial lakes something worth seeing 
would be found, but I was not prepared for such a 
harvest of new facts." 

Of the relative importance of Stanley's discovery, 
made through his survey of the Victoria Nyanza, the 
New York " Herald" says, editorially: — 

"Along the blood-stained line of his march from 
Albert Nyanza to the ocean, Stanley has discovered a 
large addition to the great Victorian sea. This most 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 507 

expansive of Africa's inland waters, discovered thirty 
years ago by the lamented and dashing explorer Speke, 
is the source of the Nile, and drains the eastern plateau 
of Equatorial Africa bordering the head waters of the 
mighty Congo. On this water-shed, within a radius 
of two hundred miles, collects the rainfall which feeds 
and fertilizes two enormous river basins rivalHng that 
of the Amazon. 

"According to our cable despatches Stanley now finds 
that the Victoria Nyanza covers twenty-six thousand 
square miles. This extension, when combined with its 
elevation (4100 feet) above the sea level, makes it the 
most important, if not the largest, reservoir of fresh 
water on the globe. Lake Superior overspreads more 
territory, but Victoria is probably much deeper, and is 
perched up more than six times as high. Though not 
quite rivalling tempestuous Lake Titicaca, which stands 
on the Bolivian table-land over twelve thousand feet 
high, the Victorian sea is vastly larger and more influen- 
tial, both as a hydrographic and meteorological agent. 

"Mr. Stanley's survey of this Mediterranean bears 
with very special interest on the future of Ce ral 
Africa. The most effective entrances which the wedge 
of Civilization has ever made into the Dark Continent 
have been on its southern and southeastern coast. If 
the routes from Zanzibar and other points on the south- 
east coast to the lake region centering in Victoria 
Nyanza can be opened up, the wave of Progress and 
Illumination will enter the populous heart of Africa 
more rapidly by these short cuts traversing a compar- 
atively healthy region than by the sickly, tortuous valley 
of the Conao." 



CHAPTER XXIX 

FROM THE ALBERT NYANZA TO THE INDIAN OCEAN. 

Emin Pasha's Indecision — Much Time Wasted — Stanley Grows Impatient — ^Jeph- 
son's Report — Stanley Demands Positive Action, and Threatens to March 
Homeward on February 13th — Receives Emin's Reply, Accepting the Escort, 
on the Day he had Proposed to Begin his Return March — Stanley Furnishes 
Carriers to Help him Up with his Luggage— Stanley Greatly Hindered by the 
Suspicions of the Natives — Convalescent from his Recent Severe Illness, Stanley 
leaves Kavalli with his United Expedition, for the Indian Ocean, April 12th — 
Letter of Lieutenant W. G. Stairs — Reaches Ursulala — Stanley's Letter to Sir 
Francis de Winston — Expeditions Fitted Out and Forwarded to the Interior to 
Meet Stanley — Stanley reaches Msuwah November 29th — Meets the "Herald" 
Commissioner — Reaches Mbiki, December 1st — Kigiro, December 3d — Baga- 
moyo, December 4th — Grand Reception Accorded Stanley at Bagamoyo — 
Enter Zanzibar December 5th — Sad Accident Befalls Emin Pasha — Seriously, 
if not Fatally, Injured — The End of a Remarkable and Extraordinary Expe- 
ditfion — The Closing Words of Stanley's Story. 

In a previous chapter reference is made to the 
hesitancy shown by Emin Pasha, Casati, and followers, 
to accept the escort of Stanley out of the country, and 
the time that was wasted in considering the proper 
step to take. That our reader may more fully com- 
prehend how the patience of Stanley was tried at this 
time, we will quote from his letter to Sir William 
McKinnon, under date of August, 1889. In referring 
to this matter, Stanley says: — 

"If you will bear in mind that August 17, 1888, after 

a march of six hundred miles to hunt up the rear 

column, I met only a miserable remnant of it, wrecked 

508 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 509 

by the irresolution of its officers, neglect of their 
promises, and indifference to their written orders, you 
will readily understand why after another march of 
seven hundred miles I was a little put out when I dis- 
covered that, instead of performing their promise of 
conducting the garrison of Fort Bodo to Nyanza, Mr. 
Jephson and Emin Pasha had allowed themselves to 
be made prisoners on or about the very day they were 
expected by the garrison of Fort Bodo to reach them. 
It could not be pleasant reading to find that, instead of 
being able to relieve Emin Pasha, I was more than 
likely, by the tenor of these letters, to lose one of my 
own officers to add to the number of Europeans in that 
unlucky Equatorial province. However, a personal 
interview with Jephson was necessary in the first place 
to understand fairly or fully the state of affairs. Feb- 
ruary 6, 1889, Jephson arrived in the afternoon at our 
camp at Kavalli on a plateau. I was startled to hear 
Mr. Jephson in plain, undoubting words say, 'Sentiment 
is Pasha's worst enemy. No one keeps Emin Pasha 
back but Emin Pasha himself.' This is a summary of 
what Jephson had learned during the nine months from 
May 25, 1888, to February 6, 1889. I gathered sufficient 
from Jephson's verbal report to conclude that during 
the nine months neither Pasha, Signor Casati, nor any 
man in the province had arrived nearer any other 
conclusion than that which was told us ten months 
before this : 

"The Pasha — 'If my people go, I go. If they sta3^ 
I stay.' 

"Signor Casati — 'If the Governor goes, I go. If 
the Governor stays, I stay.' 



5IO STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

" The Faithful — ' If the Pasha goes, we go. If the 
Pasha stays, we stay.' 

" However, a diversion in our favor was created by 
the Mahdist's invasion, and the dreadful slaughter they 
made of all they met inspired us with a hope that we 
could get a definite answer at last, though Mr. Jephson 
could only reply: T really cannot tell you what Pasha 
means to do. He says he wishes to go away, but will 
not make a move. No one will move. It is impossi- 
ble to say what any man will do. Perhaps another 
advance by the Mahdists would send them all pell-mell 
towards Utoagin. They are irresolute, and require 
several weeks' rest to consider again.'" 

In February, however, Stanley despatched a mes- 
senger with orders to Lieutenant Stairs to hasten with 
his column to Kavalli, with a view to concentrate the 
expedition ready for any contingency. Couriers were 
also dispatched to Pasha telling him of these move- 
ments and intentions, and asking him to point out how 
they could best aid him — whether it would be best for 
them to remain at Kavalli, or whether they should 
advance into the province and assist him at Mswa or 
Tangura Island, where Jephson had left him. Stanley 
suggested the simplest plan for him would be to seize 
the steamer and employ her in the transport of refugees, 
who he heard were collected in numbers at Tangura, 
to his (Stanley'^s) old camp on the Nyanza; or that, 
failing with the steamer, he should march overland from 
Tangura to Mswa, and send a canoe to inform him that 
he had done so, when, a few days after, he (Stanley) 
could be at Mswa with two hundred and fifty rifles to 
escort them to Kavalli. But Stanley demanded some- 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 51I 

thing positive, otherwise it would be his duty to destroy 
the ammunition and march homeward on the 13th of 
February. 

The following letter, by a courier, was received by 
Stanley from Emin Pasha, much to his astonishment, 
on the very day he had proposed to begin the home- 
ward march, Emin being then actually at anchor just 
below his camp: — 

Camp, February 13, 1889. 
Henry M. Stanley, Commanding Relief Expedition. 

Sir : — In answer to your letter of the 7th inst., for which I beg to tender my 
best thanks, I have the honor to inform you that yesterday at three I arrived here 
with my two steamers carrying the first lot of people desirous to leave this country 
under your escort. As soon as I have arranged for cover of my people, steamships 
have to start for Mswa station to bring on another lot of people awaiting trans- 
portation. With me there are some twelve officers anxious to see you and only 
forty soldiers. They have come under my orders to request you to give them 
some time to bring their brothers, at least such as are willing to leave, from Wade- 
lai, and I promised them to do my best to assist them. Things having to some 
extent now changed, you will be able to make them undergo whatever conditions 
you see fit to impose upon them. To arrange these matters I shall start from here 
with officers for your camp, and if you send carriers I could avail me of some of 
them. I hope sincerely that the great difficulties you have had to undergo and 
the great sacrifices made by your expedition to assist us may be rewarded by full 
success in bringing out my people. The wave of insanity which overran the 
country has subsided, and of such people as are now coming with me we may be 
sure. Sig. Casati requests me to give his best thanks for your kind remembrance 
of him. Pei-mit me to express to you once more my cordial thanks for whatever 
you have done for us until now, and believe me to be, yours, faithfully, 

DR. EMIN. 

During the interval between Jephson's arrival and 
the receipt of this letter Jephson had written pretty 
full reports of all that he had heard from Pasha, Signor 
Casati, and the Egyptian soldiers, of the principal 
events that had transpired within the last few years in 
the Equatorial province. In Jephson's report appear 
such sentences as the following: "And this leads me 
to say a few words concerning the position of affairs in 



5T2 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

this country. When I entered it, April 2t, 1888, the 
first battalion of about seven hundred rifles had been 
long in rebellion against Pasha's authority, and had 
twice attempted to make him prisoner. The second 
battalion of about six hundred and fifty rifles, though 
professedly loyal, was insubordinate and almost un- 
manageable. Pasha possessed only a semblance, a 
mere rag of authority, and if he required anything of 
importance to be done he could no longer order, he 
was obliged to beg his officers to do it. Now, when 
we were at Nzabe, in May, 1888, though Pasha hinted 
things were a little difficult in his country, he never 
revealed to us the true state of thing^s, which was 
actually desperate, and we had not the slightest idea 
that any mutiny or discontent was likely to arise among 
his people. We thought, as most people in Europe 
and Egypt had been taught to believe by the Pasha's 
own letters and Juncker's later representations, that all 
his difficulties arose from events outside his country, 
whereas in point of fact his danger arose from internal 
dissensions. Thus we were led to place our trust in 
people who were utterly unworthy of our confidence 
or help, and who, instead of being grateful to us for 
wishing to help them, have from the first conspired how 
to plunder the expedition and turn us adrift ; and had 
the mutineers in their highly-excited state been able to 
prove one single case of injustice, cruelty, or neglect 
of his people against Pasha he would most assuredly 
have lost his life in this rebellion." 

Jephson further says, in summing up his report : — 
"As to Pasha's wish to leave the country, I can say 
decidedly he is most anxious to go out with us; but 



THROUGH THE WTLDS OF AFRICA. 513 

under what conditions he will consent to come I can 
hardly understand. I do not think he knows himself. 
His ideas seem to me to vary much on the subject. 
To-day he is ready to start up and go; to-morrow some 
new idea holds him back. I have had many conver- 
sations with him about it, but have never been able to 
get his unchanging opinion on the subject. After this 
rebellion I remarked to him : ' I presume now that your 
people have deposed you, and put you aside, you do 
not consider that you have any longer any responsibility 
or obligations concerning them,' and he answered : 
* Had they not deserted me I should have felt bound to 
stand by them and help them in any way I could, but 
now I consider I am absolutely free to think only of 
my own personal safety and welfare ; and if I get a 
chance I shall go out regardless of everything.' And 
yet only a few days before I left him. he said to me : 
'I know I am not in any way responsible for these 
people, but I cannot bear to go out myself first and 
leave any one here behind me who is desirous of quit- 
ting the country. It Is mere sentiment, I know, and per- 
haps a sentiment you will not sympathize with, but my 
enemies at Wadelai would point at me and say to the 
people, " You see he has deserted you." ' These are 
merely two examples of what passed between us on 
the subject of his going out with us, but I could quote 
numbers of things he has said all equally contradictory. 
Being somewhat impatient after one of these unsatis- 
factory conversations, I said : ' If ever the expedition 
does reach any place near you I shall advise Mr. Stanley 
to arrest you and carry you off, whether you will or 
not,' to which he replied: 'Well, I shall do nothing to 



5t4 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

prevent you doing that.' It seems to me that if we are 
to have him we must save him from himself. Before 
closing my report I must bear witness to the fact that, 
in my frequent conversations with all sorts and condi- 
tions of the Pasha's people, I heard with hardly any 
exception only praise of his justice and generosity to 
his people. But I have heard it suggested that he did 
not hold his people with a sufficiently firm hand." 

In answer to Emin's request, Stanley supplied him 
with carriers and successfully aided him in bringing up 
his luggage and that of his European companions. 

Stanley in referring to the dangers which had men- 
aced him, and the many thrilling incidents that had 
crowded themselves, one upon another, to this point 
of time, to say nothing of the innumerable perplexities, 
says : — " There is virtue you know even in striving 
unyieldingly, in hardening the nerves, and facing these 
overclinging mischances without paying too much heed 
to the reputed danger. One is assisted much by 
knowing that there are no other coups, and the dan- 
ger somehow, nine times out of ten, diminishes. The 
rebels of Emin Pasha's government relied on their 
craft and on the wiles of the Heathen Chinee, and it is 
rather amusing to look back and note how punishment 
has fallen upon them. Was it Providence or luck? 
Let those who love to analyze such matters reflect 
Traitors without the camp and traitors within were 
watching, and the most active conspirator was discov- 
ered, tried, and hanged. The traitors without fell afoul 
of one another and ruined themselves. If not luck, 
then it is surely Providence in answer to good men's 
prayers. Far away our own people, tempted by 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 515 

extreme wretchedness and misery, sold our rifles and 
ammunition to our natural enemies, the Manyema, the 
slave-traders' true friends, without the least grace in 
either bodies or souls. What happy influence was it 
that restrained me from destroying all those concerned 
in It? Each time I read the story of Captain Nelson's 
sufferings I feel vexed at my forbearance, and yet again 
I feel thankful, for a higher power than man's severely 
afflicted the cold-blooded murderers by causing them 
to feed upon one another a few weeks after the rescue 
and relief of Nelson and Parkes. The memory of 
those days at times hardens and again unmans me. 
With the rescue of Pasha, poor old Casati, and those 
who preferred Egypt's fleshpots to the coarse plenty 
of the province near Nyanza, we returned, and while 
we were patiently waiting the doom of the rebels was 
consummated. 

"Since that time of anxiety and unhappy outlook I 
have been at the point of death from a dreadful Illness. 
The strain had been too much, and for twenty-eight 
days I lay helpless, tended by the kindly and skillful 
hands of Surgeon Parkes. Then lltde by litde I gath- 
ered strength, and ordered the march for home. Dis- 
covery after discovery In that wonderful region was 
made. Snowy ranges of the Ruevenzori (Cloud King 
or Rain-Creator), the Semliki River, the Albert Edward 
Nyanza, the plains of Noongora, the salt lakes of 
Kative, the new peoples Wakonju, great mountain 
dwellers of a rich forest region ; the Awamba, the fine- 
featured Wazonira, the Wanyoro bandits, then the 
Lake Albert Edward tribes and the shepherd races of 
the Eastern Uplands, then the Wanyankori, besides 



51 6 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

the Wanyaruwamba and the Wazinya, until at last wc 
came to a church whose cross dominated a Christian 
settlement, and we knew that we had reached the out- 
skirts of blessed Civilization. We have every reason 
to be grateful, and may that feeling be ever kept 
within me. Our promises as volunteers have been 
performed as well as though we had been specially 
commissioned by the Government. 

"We have been all volunteers, each devoting his 
several gifts, abilities, and energies to win a successful 
issue for the enterprise. If there has been anything 
that sometimes clouded our thoughts it has been that 
we were compelled by the state of Emin Pasha and 
his own people to cause anxieties to our friends by 
serious delay. At every opportunity I have endeav- 
ored to lessen these by despatching full accounts of our 
progress to the committee, that through them all inter- 
ested might be acquainted with what we were doing. 
Some of my officers also have been troubled in thought 
that their Government might not overlook their having 
overstayed their leave ; but the truth is, the wealth of 
the British treasury could not have hastened our 
march without making ourselves liable to impeachment 
for breach of faith, and the officers were as much 
involved as myself in doing the thing honorably and 
well. I hear there is great trouble, war, etc., between 
the Germans and Arabs of Zanzibar. What influence 
this may have on our fortune I do not know, but we 
trust nothing to interrupt our march to the sea, which 
will be begun in a few days." 

Stanley had been greatly hindered also by the sus- 
picions of the natives. "It has been current talk in 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 517 

the provinces," he says, " that we were only a party of 
conspirators and adventurers; that the letters of the 
Khedive and Nubar Pasha were forgeries concocted by 
the vile Christians, Stanley and Casati, assisted by the 
Mohammedan, Emin Pasha." 

It had also been generally doubted, after Stanley's 
expedition had started, whether Emin Pasha might, 
after all, be in want of aid. On September 28th, 1887, 
this doubt was fully confirmed by a letter from him, 
dated April 1 7th of the same year, which represented 
him as saying : " I have passed twelve years here, and 
have succeeded in re-occupying nearly every station in 
the country which General Gordon entrusted to me. 
I have won the confidence of the people, sowing the 
seed of a splendid future civilization. It is out of the 
question to ask me to leave. All I want England to 
do is to make a free tradeway to the coast." The 
various references to Emin in the recent letters of 
Stanley clearly show that the German was far from 
ready at first to accept Stanley's escort to the east 
coast of Africa. And the letter of Emin Pasha to the 
President of the Emin Relief Committee, thanking the 
subscribers to the fund and the members of the fund 
for their generous help, which "saved a handful of for- 
lorn ones from destruction," conclusively establishes 
the fact that the acceptance of Stanley's escort was but 
a compulsory matter at the last moment. 

On the 1 2th of April, Stanley having somewhat 
recovered from his severe illness, and preparations 
having been fully completed for the march to the Indian 
Ocean, the united expedition left Kavalli on the 
Albert Nyanza. Of the experiences of the expedition 



5i8 Stanley's story; or, 

on the homeward march, Lieutenant W. G. Stairs, in a 
letter under date Usambiro Mission Station, Victoria 
Nyanza, August 30th, 1889, says: 

"I wrote you last from Yambuya. Our starvation 
periods, fighting, fevers and other trials would occupy 
pages. Directly on leaving Yambuya some had a bad 
fever. Then we got into countries without food, and 
lost men at a terrible rate. The natives shot a great 
many. When, on December i6th, 1887, we reached 
Albert Nyanza we had one hundred and seventy out 
of four hundred and fourteen men that left Yambuya. 
We could not then connect with Emin, and had to 
return one hundred and twenty miles west of Albert 
Nyanza. Here we built a strong fort, and I started 
back to a place two hundred and twenty-eight miles 
down the river to bring up our sick. 

"Meantime Stanley and two of our officers went east 
to the lake and connected with the Pasha. Then our 
return march to Yambuya commenced. April 12th 
the united expedition left Kavallis on the Albert for 
the Indian Ocean. Our numbers were then one thou- 
sand one hundred and seventy-five. Now, on reaching 
here, Ursalala, we have about six hundred and seventy. 

"We have made many important geographical dis- 
coveries — one of the most important being Mount 
Ruevenzori, which for all these three thousand years 
has been undiscovered. The very source of the Nile 
is from its snow-capped peaks. It is a wonderful sight. 
I went up ten thousand seven hundred feet, but was 
stopped by ravines two thousand feet deep. 

" Anchori and the Albert Nyanza are new places to 
Europeans — at least beyond the mer^ names. Here 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 519 

in Karagwe we found the Urigl to be a large lake 
instead of the petty thing laid down on the maps. 

"After a hard march of four months we reached here 
(Ursalala) and found Mr. McKay and Mr. Dreaks of the 
Church Missionary Society. We have been here three 
days, and from these kind-hearted people have received 
a most hearty welcome, and rejoiced again in a cup of 
tea, with milk and biscuit. We fortunately found that 
cloth and beads for us had come up from the coast 
enough to buy our way out to the coast. Everything, 
has been stopped on Its way inland by the Arabs, 
making affairs assume a very critical aspect for mis- 
sionaries and attached whites living inland. 

"From here to the coast — should we have open 
roads — is a four and a half months' march for the cara- 
van. If the Arabs, however, oppose our progress no 
one can say how long it will take. 

" Of our trials and sufferings I have said very little, 
but so far our expedition has been an immense suc- 
cess, in spite of sneers seen in some of the English 
papers. I hope we will emerge triumphantly to the 
coast. The Pasha we have ; also Casati, the Italian, 
besides Egyptian and Turkish officers, soldiers, men, 
women and children and convicts. 

" We have had no news from the coast here for over 
one and a half years, and we are all in uncertainty. 
If pluck and determination can carry us through, we 
shall reach the coast. 

" One of our greatest dangers has been from starva- 
tion In the immense forest between the Congo and the 
Albert Nyanza, which was thought to be an open, 
grassy country. In this forest we lost out of six hun- 



520 STANLEYS STORY; OR, 

dred Zanzibaris some three hundred and sixty ; also 
sixteen Somali boys and about forty Nubian soldiers. 
This was en route to the Pasha. The loss of life since 
leaving the Albert Nyanza has been general — some 
two hundred. In this forest for three weeks we lived 
on roots and fungi, and though we hunted and fished, 
not a thing could we bring in. Of course our poor 
men died like dogs, and we whites were just about 
pegged out when we reached food." 

Under the date of Ursalala, August 31, Stanley 
writes Sir Francis de Winston a long letter, wherein he 
objects very strongly to the tone of a batch of news- 
paper cuttings he had received, which commented with 
an utter lack of common sense and a total disregard 
of accuracy upon his expedition. He dwells upon 
Emin's indecision, which cost him a journey, otherwise 
unnecessary, of thirteen hundred miles for Barttelot. 

He justifies the payment of a salary of £yc> per 
month to Tippu-Tib as a means for averting a 
desolating war, and declares that if both parties are 
honest in the maintenance of their agreements peace 
may continue for an indefinite period. 

He rebukes those persons in England who had lost 
faith in his steadfastness of purpose to such a degree 
as to give credit to rumors that he was marching in the 
direction of Khartoum. 

He dwells at much length upon the case of Barttelot, 
and removes the impression produced by previous 
letters reflecting upon the Major's conduct. He says 
that to extricate himself from his dilemma Barttelot 
only needed qualities that will not be gained save by 
long experience in Africa, and eulogizes his courage 



THROtJGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 52 1 

tend high qualities. He knew the Major was a man 
of little forbearance, and had intended to keep him 
with himself, but necessity compelled the change that 
caused him to leave him behind. Barttelot was ignorant 
of the language of the people, and his interpreter may 
have been false, and occasioned the coolness between 
the men and the Major which was never overcome, 
and led to his death. 

Stanley recites in detail the instructions given to 
Barttelot, and finally denies with much emphasis the 
alleged Congo atrocities of the Manyema, the canni- 
balism, and the story of photographing women during 
execution. During the whole expedition he executed 
only four men. 

As Stanley and Emin neared the confines of the colo- 
nized territory on the east coast great interest was man- 
ifested as to the time and place at which they would 
emerge from their long and wilderness enshrouded 
journey. Considerable difference of opinion was held as 
to their exact whereabouts, the course they were taking, 
and the point on the coast at which they would appear. 
When the question was still one of extreme uncertainty 
the "Herald" made the following prediction, which the 
information now received shows has been fulfilled: 

'* In our opinion Stanley and his gallant comrade, 
Emin Pasha, himself a German, will come home by the 
shortest practicable route. This, as a glance at the 
map will show, is through German territory, where 
Captain Wissmann, representing the German Govern- 
ment, and the special correspondent of the ' Herald ' 
await them with sympathy, succor and congratulations 
upon their brilliant success. 



522 Stanley's story; or, 

"Within the last few months several expeditions, 
one of which was fitted out by the 'Herald/ have been 
sent toward the interior to meet Stanley. This was 
done not through great concern for his safety, but t© 
extend to him a welcome, made substantial by generous 
quantities of tea, coffee, tobacco, spirits and food 
supplies, which it was believed would prove both 
needful and gratefully acceptable after the hardships 
and deprivations of his long journey." 

On the 29th of November, 1889, the expedition 
reached Msuwah, whence the "Herald" commissioner 
sent the following despatch : 

Msuwah, November 29. — 5 P, M. 

I have just met Henry M. Stanley, Emin Pasha, Casati, Lieutenant Stairs, Mr. 
Jephson, Dr. Parke, Nelson and Bonny, and five hundred and sixty men, women 
and children. 

I have found Stanley looking exceedingly hearty. He wears a Prussian cap, 
linen breeches and canvas shoes. I presented him with the American flag with 
which I was entrusted, and it is now flying from Mr. Stanley's tent. 

The great explorer's hair is quite white and his mustache is iron-gray. 

Emin Pasha is a slight, dark man. He wears spectacles. In a short conver- 
sation which I had with him he told me he did not wish for any honors for what 
he had done. He simply desired to be employed again in the Khedive's service. 

I have given Captain Casati his letters. He looks well, but the hardships 
which he has undergone seem to have quite undermined his constitution. 

All the other Europeans are well. We shall all proceed toward the coast the 
day after to-morrow. 

Stanley, Emin and Casati were entertained at dinner last night in this camp 
by Baron Gravenreath. Speeches were made by the Baron and by Stanley. The 
Baron complimented Stanley, Emin and their companions on their march from Cen- 
tral Africa. Stanley responded, and praised German enterprise and civilizing abilities. 

On the 1st of December the expedition reached 
Mbiki. The "Herald's" despatch informed the world 
that its force had united with Stanley, and was then 
escorting him to Bagamoyo : 

Mbiki, December i. — Noon. 
Stanley's expedition, accompanied by the force sent out by the " Herald,** 
aarrived here safely to-day. All the Europeans connected with the caravan ar« 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 523 

well with the exception of Stevens, the Commissioner of the New York Gift 
Enterprise, who has been struck down with fever, and lies in my tent very ill, 

Stanley is bringing with him two hundred and eighty-six of Emin Pasha's people. 
Many of these persons are aged, decrepit or sick, and they are all being carried 
down to the coast by Stanley's Zanzibar men. 

The troops and carriers in Stanley's command elicit the unbounded admiratioii 
of every one. They are under the most perfect discipline, and when on the road 
march in that perfect order which could only be expected of a well-trained and 
well-provisioned army. 

Acting under the orders of Major Wissmann, Lieutenant Schmidt and a few 
soldiers are accompanying us to the coast. It is their duty to slightly precede the 
main body on the march, and to make all preparations for camping comfortably at 
the various places selected for nightly halts, 

Stanley and all his officers are loud in their praises of the kindly reception they 
met with at the hands of the Germans. A special caravan was sent up to 
Mpwapwa by Major Wissmann, bearing many of the comforts of life of which the 
gentlemen of the expedition stood sorely in need, I am assured that these things 
were most welcome. 

Although we are only four days from the coast, Stanley is still expecting to 
meet the caravan of provisions which should have been sent out in accordance 
with the directions which he gave four months ago. 

The next despatch, dated from Kigiro, December 
3d, read : 

We have a march of two hours to-morrow to the Kinghani River, where we 
will stop. As there is only one boat we shall be all day crossing the stream. We 
should reach Bagamoyo December 5. There a British man-of-war and one of 
Major Wissmann's vessels will meet us and convey us to Zanzibar. 

The Egyptian Government has chartered a British India steamer to carry Emin 
and his people to Egypt Emin brings with him two hundred and eighty-three 
officers, soldiers, civil servants, three women and children, but not a single tusk 
of ivory. It was all burnt or deposited with native chiefs. 

Stanley says he finds his reward in the accomplishment of his deeds. He has 
received the " Herald " caravan of provisions for his people. 

Stanley reached Bagamoyo, at eleven o'clock on the 
morning of the 4th, Major Wissmann having provided 
horses for him and Emin at At-oni, the day before, on 
the opposite bank of the Kinghani River. The town 
of .Bagamoyo was profusely decorated. Verdant arches 
were built across all the avenues and palm branches 
waved from every window. A salute of nine guns 



5 24 Stanley's story ; or^ 

was fired by Major Wissmann's force and the same 
riuraber by the German man-of-war. All the dftiGers 
'of the expedition were sumptuously entertained at a 
..luncheon at Major Wissmann's headquarters. 
; 'The Captain of the Sperber, on behalf of the Ger- 
" man Emperor, forrrially welcomed first Stanley, the^h 
• Emin^ and congratulated them upon their return to 
^(:i;v^ilizati6n. All the vessels In the roadstead\wef% 
dressed in bunting. : ; _ . . .^.; 

"• Many persons came from Zanzibar, arhbng them 
!l!|?6ing Mr. fsfichoj, who came on behalf of Sir WilHam 
- Mackinnon, President- of the Emin Pasha Relief Com- 
mittee ; the British Cpnsyl, Mr. Churchill; Judge 
CracknaU of the British Court, and the German and 
Italian Consuls. 

: J i In die evening a banquet was held, and amid a Hood 

of champagne the German Consul, Genera! Steifen- 

sandy toasted the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, 

and Major WIssmann toasted Stanley, calling him his 

master in African exploration. 

V J ; I'S in reply, said he thanked God he had per- 

';:formed his duty. He spoke with emotion of hl3. soldiers 

whose bones were bleaching in the forest, and remarked 

'■thM with hini and those of his party work Wa.s always 

onward. He bore testimony to the Divine influence 

tliai: had guided him in his work. 

' '^S!\\Qxv he said: "Emin is here, Casati is here, lam 
' hfere, and all the young gentlemen who went with rrie 
^^ are' here," and concluded by thanking Major Wissmann 
' and the " Herald " for their kindness in sending him 
^'Stores. ; ;'■ ■ ^ •'■■ ' ■ ' " " ' I" ', "' " 

Eniin ' Pasha toasted the German Emperor^ ' and 



THROUGH . THE WILDS . OF - AFRICA. 525. 

Lleu tenant Stairs returned thanks for Stanley's officers. 
Captain Brackenbury, senior naval officer, toasted: 
Major Wissmann. This toast was drunk with honor^, 
the whole company joining in singing "For he's a jolly r 
good fellow ! " 

Stanley and his men went to Zanzibar on the day- 
following, by the 6)^^r<^^r, which had been specially 
placedat his disposal by the German Emperor. Emin's: 
people were taken over by the British man-of-war. 

This glorious and most welcome news was^ howeyer,; 
destined to be broken in upon by the sad intelligence, 
which so closely followed, that Emin had met with an, 
accident. The Pasha, being nearsighted, had walked 
out of a window, fallen and fractured his skull, the 
report stated, and was lying in a most critical state at 
Bagamoyo. This report was subsequently modified, 
so far as the facts were concerned. Instead of falling' 
out of a window he had misjudged the height of a 
balcony parapet, overbalanced himself, and fell a 
distance of twenty feet. When found his right eye 
was closed and blood was issuing from his ears. His 
body was also terribly bruised. 

The report further stated that all the doctors had 
givfen him up except Stanley's physician. Dr. Parke, 
who remained with him, and who said he thought he' 
might save him. He was receiving every care and 
attention from Major Wissmann and his officers. 

Later reports brought more encouraging words from, 
the attending physician : that the results of the acci-: 
dent to the Pa$ha had not been so serious ds wa$ at 
first supposed, and that with careful nursing and quiet: 
i^est he rrifght be moved in about ten days. 



526 STANLEY*S STORY; OR, 

Thus has ended, what must be conceded by every 
intelligent mind, the most remarkable and extraordi- 
nary expedition that ever essayed to traverse the terri- 
ble wilds of this Dark Continent; and the story of 
Stanley, its brave leader, will take a place in history 
whose prominence future ages of marvellous deeds 
and heroic adventures can never overshadow. Stan- 
ley's story, too, is fittingly closed by the grand and sub- 
lime words he uses in reviewing the work of his co- 
laborers as he reaches civilization once again ; and we 
can give it no better ending than through the language 
of him, who said : 

1 gave as much good will to my duties as the strictest honor would compel 
My faith that the purity of my motive deserved success was firm, but I have been 
conscious that the issues of every effort were in other hands. 

Not one officer who was with me will forget the miseries he has endured; 
yet every one that started from his home, destined to march with the advance 
column and share its wonderful adventures, is here to-day, safe, sound and well. 

This is not due to me. Lieutenant Stairs was pierced with a poisoned arrow 
like others, but others died and he lives. The poisoned tip came out from under 
his heart eighteen months after he was pierced. Jephson was four months a 
prisoner, with guards with loaded rifles around him. That they did not murder 
him is not due to me. 

These officers have had to wade through as many as seventeen streams and 
broad expanses of mud and swamp in a day. They have endured a sun that 
scorched whatever it touched. A multitude of impediments have ruffled their 
tempers and harassed their hours. 

They have been maddened with the agonies of fierce fevers. They have 
lived for months in an atmosphere that medical authority declared to be deadly. 
They have faced dangers every day, and their diet has been all through what 
legal serfs would have declared to be infamous and abominable; and yet they 
live. This is not due to me any more than the courage with which they have 
borne all that was imposed upon them by their surroundings or the cheery energy 
which they bestowed on their work or the hopeful voices which rang in the ears 
of a deafening multitude of blacks and urged the poor souls on to their goal. 

The vulgar will call it luck ; unbelievers will call it chance ; but deep down 
in each heart remains the feeling — that of verity. There are more things m 
heaven and earth than are dreamed of in common philosophy. 

I must be brief. Numbers of scenes crowd the memory. Could one but 
tma them into a picture it would have great interest. The uncomplaining hefo* 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



527 



ism of our dark followers, the brave manhood latent in such uncouth disguise, the 
tenderness we have seen issuing from nameless entities, the great love animating 
the ignoble, the sacrifice made by the unfortunate for one more unfortunate, the 
reverence we have noted in barbarians, who, even as ourselves, were inspired with 
nobleness and incentives to duty — of all these we could speak if we would, but I 
leave that to the " Herald " correspondent, who, if he has eyes to see, will see 
aauch for himself, and who with his gifts of composition may present a very taking 
outline of what has been done and is now near ending, thanks be to God forever 
and ever. Yours faithfully, 

HENRY M. STANLEY. 




?l- '"^f 



^ * ^ dtf''^^'^^^ :. ^ ^, 



W"^ ^0?/r^^'- 



1'.% 






^-^"iW^ 









'e^. * O N 



\r^l\^%^/1^„ 



..^^^■' -^ 



CP- c'^"^ '' /^^ ^ 

^ .-^ c^^^,^^.. ' 






/. *" '> K- I 



^^' 












\\^>^> 



,.ySK!!ilO'' CONGRESS 



029 988 238 A 



